How Far Is One Light Year
A light year is the distance traveled by a light in a vacuum within a julian year 365 25 days a light year can also be described as an astronomical unit of measuring astronomical distances in space.
How far is one light year. Because it includes the word year the term light year may be. The nearest star is 4 22 light years away. The light year is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and measures about 9 46 trillion kilometres 9 46 x 10 12 km or 5 88 trillion miles 5 88 x 10 12 mi. Looking back in time.
The light year is a measure of distance not time. As defined by the international astronomical union iau a light year is the distance that light travels in vacuum in one julian year 365 25 days. Since light travels at a speed of 186 000 miles per second a light year covers a total of 5 878625 trillion miles in one year. For general reference there are 63 000 astronomical units in one light year and 63 000 inches 160 000 cm in one mile 1 6 km.
A light year is a standard of measurement used by astronomers to describe huge distances in the universe. Light travels at a speed of 186 000 miles or 300 000 km per second. One light year is about 6 trillion miles 9 trillion km. When we use powerful telescopes to look at distant objects in space we are actually looking back in time.
It is the total distance that a beam of light moving in a straight line travels in one year. That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it. The center of the milky way is about 26 000.