IAU 2015 Resolution B3 on Recommended Nominal Conversion Constants for Selected Solar and Planetary Properties

Understand

Astronomers commonly quote the properties of celestial objects in units of parameters for the Sun, Jupiter, or the Earth.

• The resolution presented here was proposed by the IAU Inter-Division Working Group on Nominal Units for Stellar and Planetary Astronomy and passed by the XXIXth IAU General Assembly in Honolulu.
• IAU 2015 Resolution B3 adopts a set of nominal solar, terrestrial, and jovian conversion constants for stellar and (exo)planetary astronomy which are defined to be exact SI values.
• While the nominal constants are based on current best estimates (CBEs; which have uncertainties, are not secularly constant, and are updated regularly using new observations), they should be interpreted as standard values and not as CBEs.