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Laypeople tend to use light years.
Astronomers generally use parsecs, which has the advantage of sounding (slightly) less like a time unit than "light years" does (though not a lot less; Han Solo in Star Wars IV claims the Millennium Falcon is "the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs", and all the nerd justification attempts aside, it's pretty obvious that someone at the time thought that a "parsec" was a time unit).
Both light years and parsecs are based on orbital peculiarities of Earth, so there's no strong reason to prefer one over the other on that basis. Unfortunately, the "natural" unit of length based on universal constants, the Planck length, is inconveniently small for measuring anything at all (it's much, much smaller than an atom ... the radius of a hydrogen atom is over 3 million million million million Planck lengths), let alone the distances between stars.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoOnce you get outside of our solar system, the mile and even the AU become quite
useless, and you need units that are more full-bodied and robust to describe distances.
Those most widely used in the scientific community are the light year ... the distance
that light travels through vacuum in one year ... and the parsec ... 3.26 light years.
Wiki User
∙ 15y agoLight years. the distance between two stars is 150 light years
Wiki User
∙ 12y agowe measure this distance by using the unit light year. this is the distance travelled by the light in one year.
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoIt is measured in Astronomical units or (AU). One (AU) equals 149,597,871 kilometers or 92,955,807.3 miles.
Wiki User
∙ 15y agolight-years or parsecs.
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What is the units used to measure the distance of stars to the earth?
light years
What metric units do you use to measure distance?
Miles.
Units used to measure the distance to stars in terms of whether their starlight takes minutes or years to reach earth?
Tbhe unit is the "light year" = 5.8787 x 1012 miles
How do you measure distance in metric?
Use units of millimeters, meters, or kilometers.
What would be use to measure the distance to the door in metric units?
meters
What is the unit that astronomers use to measure the differences between stars and other galaxies?
They do not use units: they use the fact that stars are not galaxies. For example, you don't use units to measure the difference between children and countries.
What is the units used to measure the distance of stars to the earth?
light years
What do astronomer usually measure distance to stars with what units?
Light years. Strictly speaking, professional astronomers use "parsecs". However they also use light years, which are better known to most people.
What is used to measure distance between stars?
Light year or astronomical units
What do you use to measure the distance between stars?
you use light years, and other units
What do astronomers use to measure distance to stars?
If you refer to the units, both the light-year and the parsec are often used. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year; about 9.5 x 1012 kilometers (9.5 million million kilometers). A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.
Do astronomers measure the distancein the solar system in kilometers?
no the measure it in AU'S =ASTRONOMICAL UNITS
What is used to measure space?
Units of volume are. For big distances, astronomers use "light years" and "parsecs". A light year is the distance that light travels through space in one year.
What are the units called that measure distances to stars?
They measure them in light-years.
Why was the term light year in invented?
Distances to other planets, other stars and other galaxies are very large, making measurements in meters or kilometers difficult to handle (although scientific notation can be used). As a result, astronomers have gotten accustomed to measure distance within the Solar System in astronomical units, and to other stars and galaxies, either in light-years or in parsecs.
What do astronomers use measure to distances to nearby stars?
Two units that are commonly used are:* Parsecs (among professional astronomers) * Light-years (in popular astronomy) A light-year is about 9.5 million million kilometers. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.
What is used to find a planet's distance from the sun?
When exploring space, astronomers use astronomical units, (AU) to measure the distance from one object to another. Since every distance from one object in our solar system to another object in our solar system, the distance of a planet from the sun would be measured in astronomical units
