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A light year is a measure of distance, not speed. The word 'year' seems strange, I know. Asking 'how fast is a light year' is like asking 'how fast is a mile?' In a vacuum, light travels about 186,000 miles in one second. The moon is roughly 240,000 miles away, for comparison. So in one second, light from earth would make it most of the way to the moon! Now let light travel for one full year, and you could figure out how far that is. The distance would be called one light year.

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15y ago
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13y ago

A light-year is defined as the distance that light can travel in 1 year. We can calculate this by multiplying the speed of light by 1 year (or 3.1557*10^7 seconds) to find the distance:

d = c*t

=(2.9979*10^8 m/s)*(3.1557*10^7 s)

=9.4605*10^15 meters

or ~9,500,000,000,000 kilometers

or ~5,900,000,000,000 miles

or ~63,279 au

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14y ago

A light year is a measure of distance, not speed. The word 'year' seems strange, I know. Asking 'how fast is a light year' is like asking 'how fast is a mile?' In a vacuum, light travels about 186,000 miles in one second. The moon is roughly 240,000 miles away, for comparison. So in one second, light from earth would make it most of the way to the moon! Now let light travel for one full year, and you could figure out how far that is. The distance would be called one light year.

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13y ago

One light-year is equal to:

exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km (about 9.5 Pm)

about 5,878,625,373,183.608 miles (about 6 trillion miles)

about 63,241.1 astronomical units

about 0.306601 parsecs

exactly 31,557,600 light-seconds.

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13y ago

186,000 miles per second

The above is the speed of light in miles. The light year could be computed by multiplying this by 365 x 24 x 60 x 60 seconds.

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13y ago

"Light Year" is not a speed. It's a length or distance, just like a foot or a mile or a kilometer. It is the distance that light can travel in one year.

The speed of light is about 186,000 miles (300 million km) per second.

At that rate, the distance in one light-year is about:

5,878,700,000,000 miles ("5 trillion 878 million" etc.)

9,460,890,000,000 kilometers ("9 trillion 460 million" etc.)

(This shows you why it would be tough to use miles or kilometers to talk about distances from earth to stars ... the numbers would be too hard to handle. That's why the 'light-year' was invented.)

You might say the speed of light is 1 light-year per year

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14y ago

A light year is a measure of distance, not time.

1 light year = 9.4605284 × 1015 meters
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13y ago

A lightyear is a unit of distance.

It's the distance that light would travel (in a vacuum) in one year.

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6y ago

A light year does not move. It is a unit of measurement of how far a light beam would travel in one year. It is about 6 trillion miles.

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10y ago

A light year is roughly 6 million million miles. So, it would take a pretty long time if you ask me, with our present rocket technology.

It would take literally thousands of years.

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Q: How long is a lightyear in miles?
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How big is a lightyear?

Light can travel about 6 trillion miles in a year, so that distance is called a light-year.


How long does it take for a lightyear to travel?

A lightyear is the distance that light can travel in one year.


Miles in a lightyear?

A lot. 5,878,625,373,184 or around 6 trillion miles to a light year.


How many acres in a square lightyear?

22,116,326,410,348,823,000,000,000,000. That's 22 octillion. I took the exact number of miles in a light-year (5,878,499,810,000), squared it to get square miles, and multiplied by 640 for acres per sq mile.


How many millimeters are in a lightyear?

9.46073 x 1018 of them are. (rounded)

Related questions

How big is 1 lightyear?

It is 6,000,000,000,000 miles long


How big is a lightyear?

Light can travel about 6 trillion miles in a year, so that distance is called a light-year.


How many miles is equal to one lightyear?

one lightyear is equal to 5.87849981 × 1012 miles (thats 5 trillion, 878 billion, 499 million, 81 thousand miles).


How long does it take for a lightyear to travel?

A lightyear is the distance that light can travel in one year.


How many days are there in 1 lightyear?

1 lightyear is equal to approximately 16.098 billion miles when compared with the number of days.


Miles in a lightyear?

A lot. 5,878,625,373,184 or around 6 trillion miles to a light year.


How far is 1 lightyear?

Roughly 5,868,700,000,000 miles. (rounded)


Why is a lightyear a measurement of distance not time?

Because the definition of a lightyear is: how long light can travel in a year. Hope this helped;)


How long was Buzz Lightyear on the ISS?

15 months


How long would it take to travel one lightyear at 25000mph?

One lightyear is about 6 trillion miles, so, it would take about 27000 years to travel one lightyear at 25000 MPH. 25,000 mph is about 7 miles a second. Light travels at about 186,000 miles a second. That's 26,600 times the speed your travelling. So if it takes light one year it is going to take your vehicle 26,600 years All the numbers are rounded to whole numbers. To get an accurate time then use the actual numbers.


How many is 50 lightyear?

Fifty light years in miles: Over 300 trillion.


How far can light travel in 6 months?

0.5 Lightyear = 2.93924991 × 1012 miles