The Light Years

A light year is a measurement of distance, representing how far light travels in one year. Since light moves at about 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second), it covers roughly 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers) annually. Scientists use light years to express the vast distances between stars and galaxies in the universe. For example, if a star is 10 light years away, light from that star takes 10 years to reach us. This measurement helps us understand the immense scales of space more comprehensively.