2006-09-22 17:04:12 · 13 answers · asked by Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan-Maria Ramirez 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Light travels at aproximately 186,282.397 miles/sec in the vacuum.
The distance light travels in one year would be roughly 5,874,601,671,792 miles.
That is a light year in miles... now multiply it by the number of light years your star or planet is away from us.
7 million light years would be aprox. 41,122,211,702,544,000,000 miles.
An interesting consequence is that -for example- if the so and so star you see every night happens to be 7 million light years away, what you see every night is the state of the star 7 million years ago... in real time, it could well not exist anymore as you are actually seeing it.
2006-09-22 17:26:50 · answer #1 · answered by Hor-heh 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I just happened to work out the actual number of miles in a light year the other day - part of a discussion with my wife who is interested in learning more about cosmology. 7 million light years is 7 million times 5,874,601,672,000 miles per year (give or take a few). I will let you do the rest of the math. It is a very large number. Few people have a clear idea how incredibly vast the physical plane is. Awe at such knowledge is essentially a religious experience, since the world, and the universe (by extension) is the temple, and the universe is the word of God. Not some anthropomorphized idea of deity, the big guy in the sky with the beard, but the essence of the part of the personality of absolute nothing that brought about the answer to the 0=1 formula. Not equals in the usual sense, more like "evokes". (what is the 1, you ask? Awareness.) And here we are, hopefully learning how to live together in peace, and how to repair the damage we have done to our planet.
2006-09-23 00:30:41 · answer #2 · answered by William m 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is the distance light travels in one year at a rate of 186,000 miles a second. Multiply 186,000 time 365 X 24 X 60 X 60 for one light year
2006-09-23 00:09:43 · answer #3 · answered by nonjoo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Give or take a few miles you can say that light traverses the universe at 6 billion miles per year. Something 7 light years away would therefore be approx 42 billion miles away. i.e 6 X 7 = 42 (billion)
2006-09-24 10:34:50 · answer #4 · answered by bremner8 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Miles don't mean much when you're talking about interstellar space. Light travels about 2.3 trillion miles a year. If an object is 7 million light years distant then the light you observe is 7 million years old. Multiply 7,000,000,000 x 2.3 000,000,000,000.
2006-09-23 00:28:36 · answer #5 · answered by gone 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second - so then multiply that by, 60 and you have the speed of light in a minute - multiply that also by 60 and you have the speed of light in an hour. Multiply that figure by 24 and you have the speed of light in a day - multiply that figure by 365 and that is a light year.
2006-09-23 02:33:36 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 light year = 5.878499814^12 miles
7 million light years = 4.11494987^19 miles
2006-09-23 00:23:00 · answer #7 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A light year is the distance light travels in a year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Do the math.
2006-09-23 00:08:42 · answer #8 · answered by October 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About 3.5Ã10^13 miles.
2006-09-23 03:01:08 · answer #9 · answered by Mohammed F 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
light travels at 186,000 miles per second. so how many seconds in a year?
60 x 60= seconds in an hour
times 24 hours in a day
times 365 days in a year
times 186,000= ?
you figure
2006-09-23 00:11:38 · answer #10 · answered by oldguy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋