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14. Why is the distance between stars expressed in light years? What do you understand by the statement that a star is eight light years away from the Earth?

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Some stars are at such a  large distance away that the large distances are expressed in another unit known as light year. 

So, one light-year is equal to the distance travelled by the light in one year i.e., (we know the speed of light is about 300,000 km per second) thus,

1 Light year = 365\times 24\times 60\times 60\times 300,000km

                          = 9,460,800,000,000km 

So, if one light-year is equal to 9,460,800,000 metres then,

Eigth light years is equal to  8\times 9,460,800,000,000km

i.e., 75,686,400,000,000km.

So, it means that the star is 75,686,400,000,000 kilometres (8 light-years) away from the earth which is much large distance.

 

Posted by

Divya Prakash Singh

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