Light Years – Time or Distance?
A planet found in a “habitable zone” in 2007 has resurfaced into front page news, thanks to a conference held during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Scientist. Some guy called the discovery “extraordinary,” so the story made its way back to Yahoo!’s top headlines. You can read the whole story here, but what is interesting to note is the planet is approximately 20.5 light years away from Earth. Before you start telling everyone about your landscaping plans for your new home on Gliese 581 d, it’s important to understand what a “light year” is.
Despite the word “year,” light year is a distance measurement. Based on the premise that light travels at 186,000 miles/second, a light year is just under 6 TRILLION miles! That’s about 9.5 trillion kilometers for the non-Americans. 1
So use some perspective before you start shopping for new blinds at casa de Gliese, because it’s gonna take you about 37,000 years to get there. 2
(image above taken from dailymail.co.uk)
Read on:
How Stuff Works – What is a light year?
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