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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.
Distance of the outer limit of Oort cloud from the Sun (estimated, corresponds to 1.2 light-years) — Parsec: 206 265 — One parsec. The parsec is defined in terms of the astronomical unit, is used to measure distances beyond the scope of the Solar System and is about 3.26 light-years: 1 pc = 1 au/tan(1″) [6] [61] Proxima Centauri: 268 000 ...
It is approximately equal to the mean Earth–Sun distance. It was formerly defined as that length for which the Gaussian gravitational constant (k) takes the value 0.017 202 098 95 when the units of measurement are the astronomical units of length, mass and time. [1] The dimensions of k 2 are those of the constant of gravitation (G), i.e., L 3 ...
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. Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth after the Sun, is around 4.2 light-years away. [89]
For the middle of the journey the ship's speed will be roughly the speed of light, and it will slow down again to zero over a year at the end of the journey. As a rule of thumb, for a constant acceleration at 1 g ( Earth gravity ), the journey time, as measured on Earth , will be the distance in light years to the destination, plus 1 year.
The siriometer is an obsolete astronomical measure equal to one million astronomical units, i.e., one million times the average distance between the Sun and Earth. [13] This distance is equal to about 15.8 light-years, 149.6 Pm, or 4.8 parsecs, and is about twice the distance from Earth to the star Sirius. [14]
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To help compare different distances this section lists lengths starting at 10 16 m (10 Pm or 66,800 AU, 1.06 light-years). 15 Pm – 1.59 light-years – possible outer radius of Oort cloud; 20 Pm – 2.11 light-years – maximum extent of influence of the Sun's gravitational field [citation needed] 30.9 Pm – 3.26 light-years – 1 parsec