• Question: How old are you in light years

    Asked by danieldanieldaniel to Alexander, Josh, Serena, Simone, Stuart on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hey danieldanieldaniel!! Thanks for the question.

      The term “light year” is actually a bit misleading. A light year is actually a distance, rather than a time.

      The distance, a light year, is how far light travels in one year. Because light travels faster than anything else in the universe, it’s a very long way!! In fact, it’s about 9,460,000,000,000,000 metres! It’s one of those numbers that’s impossible to get your head around 🙂

      The connection with time is really amazing when you think about the light you see from the stars at night. When we say that a star is 1000 light years away from us, it means that the light you see from it left that star 1000 years ago! So when you’re looking up at the stars, you’re really looking back in time. Sometimes a very long way back in time!

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