Light Year
Contents
Key Stage 3
Meaning
A Light Year is the distance light can travel in one year in space.
About Light Years
- A Light Year is a distance.
- Scientists use Light Years as a unit for extremely large distances.
- A Light Year is around 9,461,000,000,000,000 metres. Since stars are much further away than this it doesn't make sense to write the distance in metres so scientists use the Light Year.
- The next nearest star to the Earth, after The Sun, is Alpha Centauri which is 4.23 Light Years away.
- Our Solar System is in a galaxy called The Milky Way but the next galaxy, Andromeda is 2,000,000 Light Years away.
Key Stage 4
Meaning
A Light Year is the distance light can travel in one year in space.
About Light Years
- A Light Year is a distance.
- Scientists use Light Years as a unit for extremely large distances.
- A Light Year is around 9,461,000,000,000,000 metres. Since stars are much further away than this it doesn't make sense to write the distance in metres so scientists use the Light Year.
- The next nearest star to the Earth, after The Sun, is Alpha Centauri which is 4.23 Light Years away.
- Our Solar System is in a galaxy called The Milky Way but the next galaxy, Andromeda is 2,000,000 Light Years away.