Astronomical Unit Vs Light Year

This is the average distance of the earth from the sun.

Astronomical unit vs light year. An astronomical unit au is the shorter of the two and is defined as the mean distance between the earth and the sun. The astronomical unit symbol. A venn diagram showing the differences between an astronomical unit and a light year. 1 astronomical unit au is equivalent to the average radius of the earth s orbit.

The actual distance varies as earth orbits the sun from a maximum to a minimum and back again once each year the au was originally conceived as the average of earth s aphelion and perihelion. To describe the distance to planets in the solar system we generally use au. A light year is 5 9 x 10 12 miles approx 6 trillion miles. The usage of the units depends on the range of distance.

1 au is about 1 4960 10 11 metres. Light years astronomical units and parsecs are all much more useful than miles or kilometers in astrophysics. The content of this lesson could enable you to. Au or au is a unit of length roughly the distance from earth to the sun and equal to about 150 million kilometres 93 million miles.

Light year parsec and astronomical unit au. The is the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in one year. However since 2012 it has been. Distance to nearby stars is generally expressed in light years and parsecs while the distance to galaxies is expressed in kilo parsecs and mega parsecs.

Light year lyr 1 lyr 9 46 x 10 15 m. 1 light year is about 9 4607 10 15 metres. Astronomical unit au 1 au 1 50 x 10 11 m. Aus are a handy reference point for me.

The primary differences are their length and their usage. 1 light year 63240 au astronomical units just for information 1 light year is equivalent to the distance travelled by light in 1 year moving in a vacuum.