Is there a measurement greater than a light year?

Question

hw assignemt

Answer 1

Yes, I believe you are referring to the "parsec" which I believe is equal to ~3.6 light years. It is defined as the distance that a star would have with a parallax of exactly 1.000 arc seconds. Sadly, there is no known star that is that close to us, but that is the definition. Astronomers often speak of "megaparsecs" and "gigaparsecs" when discussing distant objects. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

A parsec is larger than a lightyear. Captain Kirk mentioned the 'parsec' in 1967 Star Trek.

And when distances are too great to be measured by either a lightyear or a parsec, you have the concept of redshift Z.

So you have: 1. lightyear, 2. parsec, 3. Redshift Z


The distances in outer space between objects can be so staggering that a quasar or fading star might be hundreds of trillions of parsecs away. And a lot farther than that! So the distances are so vast to be practically measured so the concept of a 'redshift' is used to measure these great distances; the 'redshift z' is generally meant how far from the big bang is the object?

Answer 3

Yes, there is. It's called a Parsec. It equals 3.262 light years. If you recall, Han Solo used it to describe how fast the Millenuim Falcon traveled between to star systems to Luke Skywalker in the first episode when they were trying to hire his ship.

Answer 4

A megaparsec is commonly used in cosmology (the study of the universe). The horizon of the observable universe is about 5000 megaparsecs away, so there isn't much point in having larger distance units than this.

Answer 5

One kilolight-year, abbreviated "kly", is one thousand light-years, or about 307 parsecs. Kilolight-years are typically used to measure distances between parts of a galaxy.

One megalight-year, abbreviated "Mly", is one million light-years, or about 306,601 parsecs. Megalight-years are typically used to measure distances between neighboring galaxies and galaxy clusters.

One gigalight-year, abbreviation "Gly", is one billion light-years — one of the largest distance measures used. One gigalight-year is about 306.601 million parsecs, or roughly one-thirteenth the distance to the horizon of the observable universe (dictated by the cosmic background radiation). Gigalight-years are typically used to measure distances to supergalactic structures, such as clusters of quasars or the Great Wall.

Answer 6

A parsec is a bit more than 3.5 light years.

Interestingly, a cubic attoparsec is almost exactly one U.S. fluid ounce.

Answer 7

in terms of distance there is no measurement greater than a light year (the distance light travels in one year).
THis measurement is such a large distance that there is currently no need to use a larger measurement.

In the future if we travel such large distances it may be necassary to generate a larger form of measurement.

Answer 8

No. There is not.