Sun how many light years

The result: One light-year equals 5,,,, miles 9. At first glance, this may seem like an extreme distance, but the enormous scale of the universe dwarfs this length. Measuring in miles or kilometers at an astronomical scale would be extremely cumbersome and impractical.

Starting in our cosmic neighborhood, the closest star-forming region to us, the Orion Nebula, is a short 7,,,,, miles away, or more simply, 1, light-years away. The center of our galaxy is about 27, light-years away. The nearest spiral galaxy to ours, the Andromeda galaxy, is 2. Some of the most distant galaxies we can see are billions of light-years from us.

Jump to main content. I wanted to provide a little background before I post the answer. Actually, this answer is more of an approximation. The Sun is by far the sky's brightest night sky object because we are so close to it: between All the other stars are much fainter because they are so far away.

Think about it this way: a light beam requires about 8. It is ancient! But not to the photons themselves. You see, according to Einstein, the closer to the speed of light you travel , the more the time dilates i. Ultimately, for a photon that travels…well… at the light speed, the fastest speed there is, there is no time and no distance. In other words, photons have no age and they do not experience time.

To them, entering your eye happens instantaneously after their birth — no thousands of years of bouncing, no huge distance from the Sun traveled! Did you enjoy this post? Here are some other cool posts about the Sun. Why white dwarfs crystallize and how the Sun will turn into a giant diamond. Parker Probe: the mission to solve the mystery of the Sun.

If you have any questions o comments, do not hesitate to get in touch. Your email address will not be published. That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it! When we use powerful telescopes to look at distant objects in space, we are actually looking back in time. How can this be? Light travels at a speed of , miles or , km per second. This seems really fast, but objects in space are so far away that it takes a lot of time for their light to reach us.

The farther an object is, the farther in the past we see it. Our Sun is the closest star to us. It is about 93 million miles away. So, the Sun's light takes about 8.