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A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr [3]), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly 9 460 730 472 580.8 km, which is approximately 5.88 trillion mi.
The astronomical unit is too small to be convenient for interstellar distances, where the parsec and light-year are widely used. The parsec (parallax arcsecond ) is defined in terms of the astronomical unit, being the distance of an object with a parallax of 1″ .
The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to 3.26 light-years or 206,265 astronomical units (AU), i.e. 30.9 trillion kilometres (19.2 trillion miles).
It is not a true mathematical unit, as all ages, epochs, periods, eras, or eons don't have the same length; instead, their length is determined by the geological and historical events that define them individually. Note: The light-year is not a unit of time, but a unit of length of about 9.5 petametres (9 454 254 955 488 km).
In terms of this speed, the old definition of the astronomical unit of length had the accepted value: [3] 1 au = c 0 τ A = (149 597 870 700 ± 3) m, where τ A is the transit time of light across the astronomical unit. The astronomical unit of length was determined by the condition that the measured data in the ephemeris match observations ...
To help compare different distances this section lists lengths starting at 10 15 m (1 Pm or 1 trillion km or 6685 astronomical units (AU) or 0.11 light-years).
The amount of shift is quite small, even for the nearest stars, measuring 1 arcsecond for an object at 1 parsec's distance (3.26 light-years), and thereafter decreasing in angular amount as the distance increases. Astronomers usually express distances in units of parsecs (parallax arcseconds); light-years are used in popular media.
Astronomical distances are sometimes expressed in light-years, especially in popular science publications and media. [88] A light-year is the distance light travels in one Julian year, around 9461 billion kilometres, 5879 billion miles, or 0.3066 parsecs. In round figures, a light year is nearly 10 trillion kilometres or nearly 6 trillion miles.