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Any unit of distance can be used to describe any distance.

In the case of the stars, the nearest one to our solar system is about 4.3 light years

away, or about 25,261,000,000,000 miles.

That's the nearest star, after the sun.

Can you see now why most astronomers choose to talk about light years

rather than miles.

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Q: Are distances between stars measured miles or light years?
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Used to tell the distances between cities or planets?

The speed of light is normally used to tell the distance between planets. The distance between cities is measured in miles.


You should measure the distance between two cities in?

miles Distances between cities should be measured in either miles or kilometers.


How distance determined?

Distance is determined by measuring the length between the start and end point.For example, short distances can be measured in feet, yards or metres.Longer distances would be measured in miles or kilometres.


What do miles measure?

Distances and vast lengths in the USA are measured in miles.


Is miles used to measure distance in space?

No. Short distances (the width of a planet) are measured in kilometers. Distances from one place to another in our solar system are measured in Astronomical Units (AU), one AU being 93 million miles. Longer distances outside our solar system are popularly measured in light years, Alpha Centauri is 4.2 light years away, for example, but note I said "popularly". Astronomers use the term "parsecs" when speaking of interstellar distances (one parsec is 3.26 light years).


Does England have miles or kilometres?

Britain is in a transition period between the imperial system and the metric system. However, distances are still measured in miles.


What unit is used to measure distances on land?

It depends on what you are trying to measure. Long distances usually are measured in miles. Survey distances usually are measured in feet.


How do you measure land miles in metric system?

You don't, miles are not a unit in the metric system. All distances are measured in metres. Prefixes are used for multiples or fractions of a metre. Distances that used to be measured in miles would, today, be measured in kilometres.


Why do you think the distances to stars are measured in light years?

Distances to stars are mainly measured in PC (Parsecs). Light years are also used because the distances covered are so great. For example. Proxima Centauri our nearest neighbourhood star is: Light years: 4.23 Parsecs(PC): 1.3009. If we used miles then the distance would be: 24,866,054,200,000 or kilometers 40,018,035,200,000 Which one is the easiest to remember and that is your answer


Why is light year convenient to use as a unit for measuring star distances?

Because, if we continued to measure the distances between star in miles, the numbers would be huge. One light-year is approximately equal to 5,865,696,000,000 miles !


What is unit distance?

According to me, there are many units of distance given by S.I units .The longest unit of distance is light years and after that it is miles.


Star distances are measured in?

Light years. This is defined as the distance that light will travel in one year. It's equivalent to around 10 trillion km or 6 trillion miles.