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One light year is the distance that light travels in one year.

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 km per second.

There are 60 seconds in a minute, and 60 minutes in an hour. There are 24 hours in a day and a year is 365.25 days long.

So, multiply 186,000 times 60 times 60 times 24 times 365.25. That's the number of miles in a light-year.

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15y ago
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15y ago

A light year is the distance light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year. Figuring light travels at 186,000 miles a second how many miles will it travel in a year? A rough estimate would be: 60 x 60 x 24 x 365.25 x 186,000. In 1 minute it would travel 60 X 186,000 miles; in 1 hour it would travel 60 times that number of miles, and so on. It comes close to 9.5 trillion kilometers, or about 5.9 trillion miles

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14y ago

The "Light Year" is a unit. It has the dimensions of length or distance, just like the inch, foot, yard, meter, furlong, mile, and kilometer. It was invented at the time in the development of Astronomy when all of those other units resulted in ridiculously large numbers, and a new, longer unit was needed to describe the distances being measured for the first time. For example: When the distance to the nearest star was first measured, it was found to be located roughly 25,866,000,000,000 milesfrom the earth. Noticing that few people in the observatory even knew how to read that number, and realizing that this was the nearest star and that all the others lie at even greater distances, astronomers immediately realized that the mile was fine for describing the Thanksgiving trip to grandma's house, but it was totally inadequate for describing "astronomical" distances. They needed a new unit. For purposes of discussion, they adopted a unit of distance equal to the distance that light travels in one earth year ... roughly 5,878,700,000,000 miles. This unit has the exact same properties as the inch and the millimeter, except that it's somewhat bigger. In terms of this new unit, the distance to the nearest star is 4.4 light-years ... much easier to pronounce and remember.

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11y ago

It's a unit of 'length' ... the distance light travels through vacuum in one year.

9,460,730,473,000 kilometers (rounded)

5,878,625,373,000 miles (rounded)

The nearest star outside of our solar system is about 4.2 light years distant from us,

which also means that we see it as it was about 4.2 years ago.

The nearest galaxy outside of our Milky Way galaxy is about 2.5 million light years distant,

which also means that we see it as it was about 2.5 million years ago.

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11y ago

A light year is the distance light travels in one earth year

eg c * 3.16x10^7 = 9.46 x 10^15 m

c is the speed of light

3.16 x 10^7 is the number of seconds in one year

1 light-year = 9460730472580800 m (exactly) ≈ 5878625 million miles≈ 63241.1 astronomical units≈ 0.306601 parsecs

The figures above are based on a Julian year (not Gregorian year) of exactly 365.25 days (each of exactly 86400 SI seconds, totalling 31557600 seconds) and a defined speed of light of 299792458 m/s.

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11y ago

A light-year is a unit of length, or distance. It is the distance light travels in a year. (People sometimes confuse this, believing a light-year to be a unit of time.) A light-year is approximately 9.5 trillion kilometers.

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13y ago

For shorter distances, out to a few hundred light years or so, we can measure the distance with trigonometry and parallax. Look at the object today, and compare the background stars. Look at it again in 6 months (when the Earth is on the opposite side of its orbit, 186,000,000 miles away) and look at it again. If the difference in angle is one second of arc, then the distance to the object is "one parallax-second of arc" or one "par-sec" - or "parsec". This distance, one parsec, is approximately equal to 3.26 light-years.

For really distant objects, there is no way to measure the parallax - the angle is too small to measure with a baseline as small as the Earth's orbit. One of the reasons why we might want to launch a few space telescopes into very distant orbits - say, beyond Neptune - would be to give us a bigger trigonometric baseline to use for calculating distances based on parallax.

Beyond about 1000 light years, everything is guesswork based on the apparent magnitudes of stars; the more distant, the dimmer the star appears to be. But is it dim because it is small, or dim because it is far away? There is a class of stars known as "Cephid Variable Stars" which vary in their brightness - and the time from peak to peak of their brightness is related to their brightness!

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13y ago

One light-year is the distance that light will travel in one year. Light travels at a speed of approximately 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 km per second.

There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365.26 days in a year. Just multiply all of those numbers together.

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7y ago

When measuring distances outside of the solar system, there are two main units used. The first is the light-year, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth year (one light-year equals 9,460,000,000,000km). The second is the parsec, which is equal to 3.2616 light years or 30,857,000,000,000 km.

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13y ago

anything astronomy lol. a light year is a distance that light travels in one year through open space that equals 5,865,696,000,000 mi/yr or 1 light year for measuring purposes which is 186,000 mi/sec

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Q: What is another unit besides light years to measure distance in space?
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Light years are used to measure distance between stars because?

. . they are a convenient unit. Another convenient unit is the parsec.


A unit ight-year is a measure of?

The light-year is a measure of distance. It's the distance light travels in vacuum in one year. 5.8787 x 1012 miles (rounded)


Convert 70000 light years to earth calendar year?

Light years is a measure of distance, not of time; it is the distance that light travels in one year.


What do astromoners measure distance in between stars with?

light years


Does light year denote distance on earth?

No. A light year measures such large distances that it would be highly impractical to measure anything on Earth. The light year is used to measure distance in space beyond the solar system.

Related questions

The unit light is a measure of?

distance


Is a light year measured in energy produced?

No. A light year is a measure of distance. It is the distance light travels in a year.


Light years are used to measure distance between stars because?

. . they are a convenient unit. Another convenient unit is the parsec.


What unit of measure is used to measure the distance to the stars?

light years


How many second in a light year?

A light year is a measure of distance, not time. A light year is the distance that light will travel in one year. One light second is 186,000 miles. A light year is a measure of distance, not time. A light year is the distance that light will travel in one year. One light second is 186,000 miles.


What is the distance for a light-year?

A light year is the distance light travels in one year and is a measure of distance or length. It equates to about 5.9 trillion miles.


What are light-minutes in science?

A light-minute is a measure of distance. It is the distance light travels in one minute's time. One light-minute is a distance of about 11,176,943.82 miles.


What unit of distance used to measure items in space?

Light years: the distance that light travels in a year.


What is another unit for star distance besides light years?

You can use any unit you want for distance.If you want to use miles, then just take the number of light-years and multiply it by 5,878,700,000,000.


Is there going to be another Jak besides Light and Dark?

no


What is distance to stars usually called?

light year the DISTANCE light travels in a year so 'light year' is not a measure of time.


Use light-year in a sentence?

A light-year is a measure of distance, not of time.