Pardon me with all these doubts but today I am very fascinated with astronomy and space!
2007-08-01 06:26:20 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
a light year is the distance which light travels in one year..
it is approximately 5,880,000,000,000 miles because light travels 186,000 miles per second
our milky way is about 200,000 light years across which means it takes light 200,000 years to go across milky way
light can travel from earth to moon in just 1.3 seconds
so that means when we see the moon, we see it 1.3 seconds ago.
which isnt a long time
same with the sun : 8.3 minutes
and pluto takes about 8 hours for light to travel there
finally, light has to travel 2,000,000 years to get to andromeda galaxy..
and
2007-08-01 08:03:39 · answer #1 · answered by facebook rocks ! 3 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Hello,
A light year is the distance light will travel in a year. Light travels just over 186,000 miles per Second in outerspace, and slightly slower when it has to go through a denser medium, such as an atmosphere. Some of the farthest galaxies in the universe are around 15 billion light years away. The moon is only 1.5 light seconds away from the earth. Crazy huh?
I hope this helped sweetie!
2007-08-01 20:21:06 · answer #2 · answered by justask23 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in a year. Since the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second, this works out to about 5.88 * 10^12 miles. It is used in astronomy for interstellar distances both because it is conveniently large (e.g. the distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.37 light-years and 25.8 trillion miles - the former is a more manageable figure) and because it is closely related to the age of the light seen from the source (e.g. when we see an event at Alpha Centauri, it occurred about 4.37 years ago).
2007-08-01 13:39:06 · answer #3 · answered by peri_renna 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
that is the distance that light can travel in a year. which so if you were to fly to mars and lets say it was 15 light years away for example then it would take you 15 years to get there. The exact speed of light is ummm I think 299,792,458 metres per second i got that from a site i will put the link down below in the source section. Which it has alot of good info in there also about it.
2007-08-01 14:13:25 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A light year is the distance light travels in one year at the speed of 186,000 miles per second.
Thus a light year is about 5,880,000,000,000 miles.
Note: The distance from the earth to the sun is called an Astronomical Unit, and is equal to about 93,000,000 miles. Light travels one astronomical unit of distance in about eight (8) minutes.
2007-08-01 13:30:42 · answer #5 · answered by aviophage 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Distance travel at the speed of light for a year
2007-08-01 17:40:24 · answer #6 · answered by Stoned 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a light year is the distance light travels in 1 year. which is almost 6 trillion miles.
2007-08-01 20:57:32 · answer #7 · answered by ftm821 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year's time.
186,000 miles per second X 3600 seconds per hour X 24 hours per day X 365 days per year equals about 5.9 trillion miles.
2007-08-01 13:34:02 · answer #8 · answered by lunatic 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
A light year is an indication of distance; the distance that light travels in one earth year.
A light ??? would be appropriate as a measure of distance using any time designation.
2007-08-01 13:32:57 · answer #9 · answered by credo quia est absurdum 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The time Lihgt drives one year, 300000km/sec.* 365 Days...nearly 9,5 Billion KM. the next Star...A centauri is 4,5 LJs distane to us.
2007-08-01 13:35:19 · answer #10 · answered by faustusfamulus 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋