Define light years and how we calculate
Answers
Answer:
a unit of astronomical distance equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year, which is 9.4607 × 1012 km (nearly 6 million million miles).
Explanation:
it is the distance travelled by the light in one year. To calculate this number, use the formula d = c × t, where d is 1 light year, c is the speed of light, and t is the number of seconds in 1 year.
Explanation:
The Sun is nearly 150.000.000 kilometres (150 million km) away from the Earth.
The next nearest star is Proxima Centauri. It is at a distance of about 40.000.000.000.000 km from the Earth. Can you read this distance in kilometres conveniently? Some stars are even further away.
Such large distances are expressed in another unit known as light year. It is the distance travelled by light in one year. Remember that the speed of light is about 300.000 km per second. Thus, the distance of the Sun from the Earth may be said to be about 8 light minutes. The distance of Alpha Centauri is about 4.3 light years.