What is a light year and how does it look?

Answer 1

Put simply this is the DISTANCE traveled by a beam of light through vacuum in one earth year.

For instance if you go outside and shine a torch up into the night sky, a the light form your torch will shoot up into the sky at the speed of light which is:

299,792,458 metres per second.

Thus, after one hour the light form your torch will have traveled 1,079,252,848.8 kilometers.

and after one year it will have traveled 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers

We use light years to measure distance in astronomy because the numbers are so big.

It is easy to understand that one of the nearest stars (apart form the Sun) to us is Sirius and this is 8.6 light years away (the light we see now left it 8.6 earth years ago), while Betelgeuse is 427 light years away.

More information:

Light travels at the rate of:

186,000 miles per second, or

11,160,000 per minute, or

669,600,000 miles per hour, or

16,070,400,000 per day, or

5,865,696,000,000 miles in one year (one light year).

Answer 2

A light year is the distance that light travels in one year, equivalent to about 5.88 trillion miles. It is a unit of measurement for vast distances in space. Since light travels at a speed of about 186,282 miles per second, a light year is an immense measure of cosmic distance. It is not something that can be seen visually, as it is a unit of distance rather than a physical object.

Answer 3

The distance light travels in one year. 1 ly = 5,874,601,673,407.3 miles One light year is the distance light can travel in one year.

Answer 4

a quasar 10 billion light years away; if you looked at it, you would see it as it was 10 billions years ago

Answer 5

The number of miles light travels in one year - 9,500,000,000,000 km or 5,865,696,000,000 miles.

Answer 6

It's a distance , and it looks 5.879x10^12 miles long.

Answer 7

"One light-year is the distance that all forms of electromagnetic radiation,

including light, travel through vacuum in one year."

Answer 8

A light year is the distance light travels in one year. Note that it is a unit of DISTANCE

Answer 9

Distance covered by light in one year.