How many Earth years are there in one light year? Light year and cosmic scales How much distance is in 1 light year.

Light year- an unsystematic unit of distance measurement in astronomy.
Numerically, one light year equal to the distance light travels in one year.
More precisely, a light year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum, without the influence of gravitational fields, in one Julian year (365.25 days or 31,557,600 standard seconds).
In Russian literature, the light year is designated “St. g.", in foreign: "ly"

What is one equal to? light year:
Light year in kilometers: 9,460,730,472,580.8 km.
9 460 730 472 580 800 meters
63,241.077 astronomical units (AU)
1 light year is equal to 0.306601 parsecs.

In addition to the light year, there are also fractions of the light year: light month, light week, light hour, light minute and light second. They are rare, but it will be interesting to see how different distances are expressed in these units:

The light year is a fairly convenient unit of distance measurement in astronomy. The highest speed at which information can spread in our world is the speed of light. Therefore, distances expressed in light years simultaneously show how quickly one space object may affect another.

For example, you've probably heard that the star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion is expected to explode in the foreseeable future (in fact, within a few centuries).
Betelgeuse is located at a distance of 495 to 640 light years from us.
If it explodes right now, then the inhabitants of the Earth will see this explosion only in 500-600 years.
And if you see an explosion today, then remember that in fact the explosion occurred around the time of Ivan the Terrible...
This example clearly shows how convenient the light year is - it simultaneously shows both distance and time.

Light year - how many Earth years is it?

How many Earth years are there in a light year? Quite a strange question, but sometimes it comes up... A light year is a measure of distance, as written above, and an earthly year is a measure of time. Therefore, the answer to the question, how many Earth years are in one light year, will be - none :-)

On February 22, 2017, NASA reported that 7 exoplanets were found around the single star TRAPPIST-1. Three of them are in the range of distances from the star in which the planet can have liquid water, and water is a key condition for life. It is also reported that this star system is located 40 light years from Earth.

This message caused a lot of noise in the media; some even thought that humanity was one step away from building new settlements near nova, but that's not true. But 40 light years is a lot, it’s a LOT, it’s too many kilometers, that is, it’s a monstrously colossal distance!

The third is known from the physics course escape velocity- this is the speed that a body must have at the surface of the Earth in order to go beyond the limits solar system. The value of this speed is 16.65 km/sec. Conventional orbital spaceships start at a speed of 7.9 km/sec and revolve around the Earth. In principle, a speed of 16-20 km/sec is quite accessible to modern earthly technologies, but no more!

Humanity has not yet learned to accelerate spaceships faster than 20 km/sec.

Let's calculate how many years it will take a starship flying at a speed of 20 km/sec to travel 40 light years and reach the star TRAPPIST-1.
One light year is the distance that a beam of light travels in a vacuum, and the speed of light is approximately 300 thousand km/sec.

A human-made spaceship flies at a speed of 20 km/sec, that is, 15,000 times slower than the speed of light. Such a ship will cover 40 light years in a time equal to 40*15000=600000 years!

An Earth ship (at the current level of technology) will reach the star TRAPPIST-1 in about 600 thousand years! Homo sapiens has existed on Earth (according to scientists) for only 35-40 thousand years, but here it is as much as 600 thousand years!

In the near future, technology will not allow humans to reach the star TRAPPIST-1. Even promising engines (ion, photon, cosmic sails, etc.), which do not exist in earthly reality, are estimated to be able to accelerate the ship to a speed of 10,000 km/sec, which means that the flight time to the TRAPPIST-1 system will be reduced to 120 years . This is already a more or less acceptable time for flight using suspended animation or for several generations of immigrants, but today all these engines are fantastic.

Even the nearest stars are still too far from people, too far, not to mention the stars of our Galaxy or other galaxies.

The diameter of our Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100 thousand light years, that is, the journey from end to end for a modern Earth ship will be 1.5 billion years! Science suggests that our Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and multicellular life is approximately 2 billion years old. The distance to the closest galaxy to us - the Andromeda Nebula - 2.5 million light years from Earth - what monstrous distances!

As you can see, of all the living people, no one will ever set foot on the earth of a planet near another star.

Quick answer: not at all.

We are often asked very interesting questions, the answers to which can be very non-standard. You see one of these questions in the title. And really, how many Earth years are there in one light year? You may be disappointed, but the correct answer is not at all. How so?

The thing is that a light year is not a measure of time, but a measure of distance. To be more precise, a light year is equal to the distance that light travels in a vacuum, unaffected by gravitational fields, in one Julian year (equal by definition to 365.25 standard days of 86,400 SI seconds, or 31,557,600 seconds), according to definition of the International Astronomical Union.

Now let's try to calculate the distance of a light year. To do this, let’s take the mark of 300 thousand kilometers per second (this is exactly the speed of light) and multiply by 31.56 million seconds (so many seconds in a year) and get a huge figure - 9,460,800,000,000 km (or 9,460,000 million kilometers). This fantastic figure means a distance that is equal to a light year.

• 1 light month ~ 788,333 million km

• 1 light week ~ 197,083 million km

• 1 light day ~ 26,277 million km

• 1 light hour ~ 1,094 million km

• 1 light minute ~ approximately 18 million km

• 1 light second ~ 300 thousand km

Galactic distance scales

Light year ( St. G., ly) is an extra-system unit of length equal to the distance traveled by light in one year.

More precisely, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light year is equal to the distance that light travels in a vacuum, unaffected by gravitational fields, in one Julian year (equal by definition to 365.25 standard days of 86,400 SI seconds, or 31,557 600 seconds). It is this definition that is recommended for use in popular science literature. In professional literature for expression long distances Instead of light years, parsecs and multiples of units (kilo- and megaparsecs) are usually used.

Previously (before 1984), a light year was the distance traveled by light in one tropical year, assigned to the epoch 1900.0. The new definition differs from the old one by approximately 0.002%. Since this unit of distance is not used for high-precision measurements, there is no practical difference between the old and new definitions.

Numeric values

A light year is equal to:

• 9,460,730,472,580,800 meters (approximately 9.46 petameters)
• 63,241.077 astronomical units (AU)
• 0.306601 parsecs

Related units

The following units are used quite rarely, usually only in popular publications:

• 1 light second = 299,792.458 km (exact)
• 1 light minute ≈ 18 million km
• 1 light hour ≈ 1079 million km
• 1 light day ≈ 26 billion km
• 1 light week ≈ 181 billion km
• 1 light month ≈ 790 billion km

Distance in light years

The light year is convenient for qualitatively representing distance scales in astronomy.

A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. The International Astronomical Union has given its explanation of the light year - this is the distance that light travels in a vacuum, without the participation of gravity, in a Julian year. The Julian year is equal to 365 days. It is this decoding that is used in scientific literature.

If we take professional literature, then the distance is calculated in parsecs or kilo- and megaparsecs.

There are specific numbers that determine the distance of light hours, minutes, days, etc.

• A light year is equal to 9,460,800,000,000 km,
• month- 788,333 million km.,
• a week- 197,083 million km.,
• day- 26,277 million km,
• hour- 1,094 million km.,
• minute- about 18 million km.,
• second- about 300 thousand km.

This is interesting! From the Earth to the Moon, light travels on average in 1.25 seconds, while its beam reaches the Sun in just over 8 minutes.

The star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion should explode in the foreseeable future (in fact, within a few centuries).

Betelgeuse is located at a distance of 495 to 640 light years from us.
If it explodes right now, then the inhabitants of the Earth will see this explosion only in 500-600 years.

And if you see an explosion today, then remember that in fact the explosion occurred around the time of Ivan the Terrible...

Earth year

An earthly year is the distance traveled by the earth in one year. If we take into account all the calculations, then one light year is equal to 63242 Earth years. This figure applies specifically to planet Earth; for others, such as Mars or Jupiter, they will be completely different. A light year calculates the distance from one object celestial body to another. The numbers for light years and earth years are so different, although they mean distance.

Scale

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Sources

Quick answer: not at all.

We are often asked very interesting questions, the answers to which are very non-standard.

You see one of these questions in the title. And really, how many earthly years are there in one bright year? You may be disappointed, but there is no real answer.

The fact is that a bright year is not a measure of time, but a distance measure. To be more precise, a light year is the distance of distance in a vacuum without gravity fields, one effect of the Julian year (equivalent to 365.25 standard days per 86,400 SI seconds or 31,557,600 seconds) by the International Astronomical Federation.

To do this, we take 300 thousand kilometers per second (that's exactly the speed of light) and multiply it with 31.56 million seconds (many seconds per year) and we get great amount- 9460800000 000 km (or 9.46 million kilometers). This fantastic number means a distance equal to a light year.

• 1 light month ~ 788,333,000,000 km

• 1 easy week ~ 197,083,000 km

• 1 daylight ~ 26,277 million km

• 1 light hour ~ 1,094 million km

• 1 light minute ~ about 18 million km

• 1 light second ~ 300 thousand km

To find out how many kilometers in a light year you need to use a simple web calculator.

In the left box, enter the number of light years of interest you want to convert. In the field on the right you will see the calculation result. Simply click the appropriate link to convert light years or miles to other units.

What is “bright summer”

The light year of the one-way system (St., ly) is equal to the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in one July year (365.25 days).

This term is mainly used in science and fiction, and in the professional environment the term “parsecs” with the prefix “kilo” and “mega” was adopted.

and not before 1984, according to the bright year, to understand the distance with light traveled in the tropical year, now the value has changed by 0.002%, and the practical value of this difference, because very precise measurements are not produced in light years. The speed of light is about 300 thousand.

km per second and a luminous year of about 10 trillion kilometers (9460.8800 million km). Regarding distances, for example, Sirius is 8 light years from its closest proximity to the star Proxima Centauri - 4.22 light years, and the diameter of the Roman road - our galaxy, which is 100,000 light years.

What is a "kilometer"

The kilometer kilometer (km, km) is a plural unit of reference distances, widely used throughout the world.

One kilometer 1000 meters, 0.621 miles, 0.9374 miles, 1094 yards, 3281 meters, 1.057 x 10 - 13 light years, 6.67 x 10 - 9 astronomical units.

Easy years

For hundreds of years, people have been inventing their own planet to invent more and more remote sensing systems. Therefore, it was decided to take into account a universal unit of one meter in length and a long measuring path of kilometers.

But in the next twentieth century it created new problem for humanity. People began to carefully study the universe - and it turned out that the size of the universe is so large that miles are simply not suitable here.

In ordinary units you can express the distance from the Earth to the Moon or from the Earth to Mars. But if you're trying to figure out how far the nearest star is from our planet, the number "grows" with an imperceptible number of characters per decimal point.

What is 1 light year?

It was obvious that a new space exploration unit was needed - and it was a bright year.

In a second, light travels 300,000 kilometers. Easy years — this is the distance whose light will travel exactly a year, and when translated into a more familiar system of numbers, this distance is 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers. It is clear that using a concise “simple flight” is much more convenient than using every huge number in calculations.

Of all the stars closest to us, Proxima Centauri was only “4.2 light years away.” Of course, based on kilometer data there is an unimaginable amount. However, everything is relative - considering that the nearest Andromeda galaxy is separated from the Roman road by as much as 2.5 million light years, the star and the truth begin to seem very close neighbors.

By the way, using light years helps scientists understand in which corners of space it is reasonable to find intelligent life and where sending radio signals is completely useless.

After all, the speed of a radio signal is similar to the speed of light, so a greeting sent towards a distant galaxy would take millions of years to reach its destination. It makes sense to expect a response from neighboring “neighbors” - objects whose hypothetical response signals will reach ground-based devices even during a person’s lifetime.

1 light year - how many Earth years?

There is a common misconception that a light year is a unit of time.

Actually this is not true. This term has nothing to do with Earth years, it does not refer to them and only represents the distance that light travels in one Earth year.