![]() It's also only about 3.3 times as long as the light-year, so it's used for the same kind of measurements, which almost makes it redundant. ![]() It's based on trigonometry and seems like a strange way to measure distance. Light-days = The distance a photon travels in one Earth day.Light-minutes = The distance a photon travels in one minute.Light-seconds = The distance a photon travels in one second.We can also use other units based on the travel time of light, for example: It means the distance that a photon of light can travel through the vacuum of space in one Earth year. The name often confuses people-remember that a light-year is a measurement of length/distance, not time. The most common measurement unit for astronomical distances is the light-year. For example, Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9 au, or nine times as far away from the Sun as Earth. One AU is the average distance from the Sun to the Earth, approximately 150 million km. For everyday use, kilometres (km) are often used for distances up to the size of the Solar System, but astronomers tend to prefer to use astronomical units, light-years and parsecs. 2.5 × 10 7 m, but you don't need to worry about that if you don't want to. ![]() In academic or engineering situations, metres are often shown using scientific notation, e.g. Note: Metric is the official measurement system of astronomy. We can use kilometres or miles to measure distances within our Solar System, but the rest of the Universe requires a step up. Distances in space are so large that the measurements we use on Earth aren't often practical.
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