How Many Years Is A Light Year
The star nearest to the earth is roughly 24 trillion miles or slightly over 4 light years away.
How many years is a light year. A light year is the distance a beam of light travels in a single earth year or 6 trillion miles 9 7 trillion. We can calculate this by multiplying the speed of light by 1 year or 3 1557 10 7 seconds to find the distance. One light year is about 6 trillion miles 9 trillion km. Light travels a whopping 9 460 528 000 000 km in a year equivalent to 5 878 499 562 555 miles.
That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it. The light year is a measure of distance not time. How far is 40 light years. 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.
The distance that light travels in a second is about 186 000 miles making that the distance of a light second. Light years are used to simplify the discussion of extreme distances. Because it includes the word year the term light year may be. A light year is defined as the distance that light can travel in 1 year.
A light year is a measurement of distance and not time as the name might suggest. To obtain an idea of the size of a light year take the circumference of the earth 24 900 miles lay it out in a straight line multiply the length of the line by 7 5 the corresponding distance is. Those are really large numbers. In february 2017 astronomers detected seven earth sized planets orbiting a single star 40 light years away from earth.
When we use powerful telescopes to look at distant objects in space we are actually looking. It is the total distance that a beam of light moving in a straight line travels in one year. For most space objects we use light years to describe their distance. A light year is the distance light travels in one earth year.