![]() ![]() We hope that from now on, you won’t be puzzled by the terms lunar distance, astronomical unit, and light-year while reading astronomical articles. In professional astronomy, instead of the light-year, the unit called parsec (pc) is used more often. The nearest big galaxy to our Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, is about 2.5 million light-years away. For example, the closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is located 4.24 light-years away from us. The light-year is used to measure distances to objects outside the Solar System, like other stars and galaxies. It is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Earth-year, which equals 9.46 trillion kilometers (5.88 trillion miles). How far is a light-year?ĭespite its name, a light-year is a unit of distance, not a unit of time. For example, at their closest to the Earth, Mars and Jupiter are 0.37 AU and 3.9 AU away from it, respectively. The astronomical unit is commonly used to measure distances between objects within the Solar System or around other stars. As the Earth’s orbit is elliptical, our planet’s actual distance to the Sun varies by about 3% around the year – that’s why the average distance is used. One astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). For example, the asteroid 2001 FO32, which flew by the Earth in March 2021, was five lunar distances away from us. Light Years A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. It is exactly 648,000 / Pi astronomical units, or approximately 30.9 trillion kilometers. In Scientific Notation 1 parsec 1 x 10 0 parsecs 3.26156 x 10 0 light years Parsecs A parsec is a unit of distance used in astronomy. Just type the number of parsecs into the box and hit the Calculate button. 1 parsec is equal to about 3.26 light years. Lunar distance is mainly used to express the distance to near-Earth objects, like asteroids and comets. How many light years are in a parsec Use this easy and mobile-friendly calculator to convert between parsecs and light years. At an average perigee (the closest point to the Earth), the Moon is 363,228 kilometers (225,700 miles) away from our planet, and at an average apogee (the farthest point from the Earth), it’s 405,400 kilometers (251,900 miles) away. Why is the average distance used? As the Moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular, our natural satellite is not always the same distance from the Earth. Light travels very quickly at around 300,000,000 metres. One light year is the distance travelled by light in one year. ![]() For reference, this equals about 30 diameters of the Earth. A light year is a unit used to measure distance, not time. More p recisely, one light-year is equal to 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers. So in one year, it can travel about 10 trillion km. Light moves at a velocity of about 300,000 kilometers (km) each second. It is the distance that light can travel in one year. In astronomy, lunar distance (LD) is the average distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Moon, which is 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles). Answer: A light-year is a unit of distance. What’s bigger: lunar distance, astronomical unit, or light-year? How are these units used? Check out our infographic to find these out! See Infographic What does lunar distance mean?
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