light year
19
5.0
- noun
- /ˈlaɪt jɪr/
- Specialized
:
año luz
- The starry disk of the galaxy is about 3,000 light years thick.
- about 3,000 light years
- light years away
- billion light years
And while here on Scishow, we almost always use metric units plus common oddballs like light years because they're what most people worldwide understand.
- And while here on Scishow, we almost always use metric units plus common oddballs like light years because they're what most people worldwide understand.
- We think that that extends maybe a light year out into the universe the the, the radius of the sun's influence, if you like, a light year.
- Yes, if you are at the distance in light years from Earth, that corresponded to the time in the past that those Roman battles took place.
Examples
-
We drift above the majestic, spiraling disk, tens of thousands of light years across.
Fiction book (1997) -
Only 5.8 light years from Earth, it is one of our sun's closest neighbors.
Fiction book (2001) -
That's 100 million light years away.
-
One of the advantages of being a thousand light years from Federation headquarters.
Fiction book (1991) -
The Solar System will have traveled fifty light years in that time, not one-twentieth of their distance.
Academic text (1999) -
They're 18 light years away, Valerian.
-
Recently, scientists photographed a gamma ray burst 3.8 billion light years from Earth.
Academic text (2014) -
Barnard's star, at six light years away, is the nearest star other than the Sun visible from northern latitudes.
Academic text (1992) -
Four times further than that you get to the nearest star, the Proxima Centauri, the Alpha Centauri system that's about four light years away or so.
-
The nearest star to Earth is about 4.24 light years away.
Synonyms
109
4.9
The distance light travels in one year
Surface Forms
Morphology
The figurative meaning ('a very large distance or gap') is related to the literal astronomical unit: a light-year is how far light travels in one year, so the sense is partially inferable from the parts. However, understanding the magnitude and how it becomes a metaphor requires background knowledge (the speed/distance implication) that a B1 learner who only knows 'light' and 'year' may not have, so the relation is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Light year was made to name the distance that light travels in one year. Picture a beam of light moving for a whole year — it goes a very long way, so space scientists use light year to measure the huge distances between stars.