Why don't you use light years to measure the distance to Pluto?

Answer 1

The nearest star system outside our own Solar System is Toliman, at a distance of 4.3 light-years. In kilometers, this would be about 43 million million kilometers, or 43,000 million million meters (43 quadrillions, in the short scale).

These numbers can easily be written in scientific notation, in this case, 43 x 1012, or normalized, 4.3 x 1013. However, these numbers are hard to visualize for many people, so light-years are often used instead. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year.

Astronomers often use parsecs instead. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.

The nearest star system outside our own Solar System is Toliman, at a distance of 4.3 light-years. In kilometers, this would be about 43 million million kilometers, or 43,000 million million meters (43 quadrillions, in the short scale).

These numbers can easily be written in scientific notation, in this case, 43 x 1012, or normalized, 4.3 x 1013. However, these numbers are hard to visualize for many people, so light-years are often used instead. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year.

Astronomers often use parsecs instead. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.

The nearest star system outside our own Solar System is Toliman, at a distance of 4.3 light-years. In kilometers, this would be about 43 million million kilometers, or 43,000 million million meters (43 quadrillions, in the short scale).

These numbers can easily be written in scientific notation, in this case, 43 x 1012, or normalized, 4.3 x 1013. However, these numbers are hard to visualize for many people, so light-years are often used instead. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year.

Astronomers often use parsecs instead. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.

The nearest star system outside our own Solar System is Toliman, at a distance of 4.3 light-years. In kilometers, this would be about 43 million million kilometers, or 43,000 million million meters (43 quadrillions, in the short scale).

These numbers can easily be written in scientific notation, in this case, 43 x 1012, or normalized, 4.3 x 1013. However, these numbers are hard to visualize for many people, so light-years are often used instead. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year.

Astronomers often use parsecs instead. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.

Answer 2

The distance between earth and a star is measured in light years for our understanding. The distance between two celestial bodies are so huge that it gives us a lot of difficulties while calculating and while in a speech.

Between 1000000000000000 meters and 1 light year obviously 1 light year seems to be much better for calculation.

Answer 3

You can use any measure you like - light-seconds, light-minutes, light-hours, light-years, meters, miles, angstroms, or plank units for example. But with respect to light, it simply takes several hours for light to go from the Sun to Pluto. So, specifying the distance in light-hours makes this clear. Similarly, instead of saying "2 and a half hours", you could use minutes ("150 minutes"), but it is common to use a unit in which you get numbers that are neither too small nor too big.

Answer 4

The distance to pluto is 39.5 astronomical units which is 93,000,000 miles, one light year however is 5,878,625,373,183.608 miles, 1 AU is 92,955,807.27297556 miles so it would be more appropriate to use AU than lightyears -lightyears are used for extreme distances (the distance light travels in one year in a vacuum [Space]).

Answer 5

The nearest star system outside our own Solar System is Toliman, at a distance of 4.3 light-years. In kilometers, this would be about 43 million million kilometers, or 43,000 million million meters (43 quadrillions, in the short scale).

These numbers can easily be written in scientific notation, in this case, 43 x 1012, or normalized, 4.3 x 1013. However, these numbers are hard to visualize for many people, so light-years are often used instead. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year.

Astronomers often use parsecs instead. A parsec is about 3.26 light-years.

Answer 6

It is commonly believed that nothing goes faster than light; light is a kind of speed limit in the Universe. Specifying distances in terms of the time light travels gives a good idea of the distances, which in kilometers would be very large numbers.

Answer 7

The standard measure of distance in the SI (international system of units) is the meter. However, this gives very large distances in the case of stars or galaxies; for example, Rigil Kentaurus is at a distance of 4.3 light-years, each light-year is about 9.5 x 1015 meters. If you write it out, you get a 16-digit number. You can multiply that by 4.3 to get the distance to Rigil Kentaurus in meters; the point is, the numbers are very, very large (that's where the word "astronomical" came from), and hard to imagine. A light-year - the distance light travels in a year - is easier to visualize.

Answer 8

Stars themselves are not measured in light years. It is their distances from us which use this unit. The reason is that the lengths involved are so vast that using conventional units such as miles and kilometres would give ridiculously large numbers.

Answer 9

Light years are no longer the standard unit for measuring distances to stars - though the use persists. The standard measure is a parsec = 3.26 light years, approx.

Using standard units for measuring distance, the nearest star is 40,170,000,000,000,000 metres away. It is quite impractical to write that long string of numbers. That distance is equivalent to 4.25 light years - a much more manageable number!

Answer 10

Lightyears is a more convenient measurement since it can provide astronomers with a sense of scale since distances of outer space are enormous in their size.