Getting To Know The Term Light Year: History To Examples Of Use

Space illustration (Unsplash)

YOGYAKARTA Have you heard of the light year unit? This term is not very familiar among the general public, but is often used by astronomers. However, the public needs to know the term light year as a provision of general knowledge about outer space.

When referring to the name, many people would think that the light year unit refers to time. But in fact this unit is actually a distance unit used by scientists to measure the distance of objects in outer space.

In general, the light year is a unit used by astronomers to measure objects in outer space. The light unit is abbreviated as TC, while in English it is abbreviated as LY or Light Year.

This unit is used in outer space because astronomers are unlikely to use units of kilometers, miles, meters, or other units commonly used on earth. Because if you use ordinary units of distance, the resulting digits will be very large, making it difficult for researchers. This is one of the reasons why it uses light year units.

The distance from the light year is obtained from the results of the travel that can be achieved by light within one year when passing through the vacuum. The value of the light year is around 9.46 trillion kilometers (9.46 x 1012 km) or 5.88 trillion miles (5.88 x 1012 miles). This means that the movement of light reaches 9.4 trillion kilometers per year.

It should also be noted that light units also affect human vision from the earth because other human eyes or visual inputs require light.

For example, when an astronomer saw a star last night, the actual form that appears in the eyes is the form of a star in the past, aka not real-time.

The same thing can also be explained in other case examples. For example, the distance of the sun is 8.3 minutes of light from the earth. When the sun suddenly explodes, humans will not know at that time because it takes time to get to Earth.

History Of The Distance Of The Light Year

The emergence of the light year unit occurred in 1838. This time was several years after humans managed to measure the distance from the earth to the celestial body in the form of stars, namely by Friedrich Bessel. At that time, astronomers measured 61 Cygni stars with a 6.2-inch heliometer unit (160 mm) previously designed by Joseph von Fraunhofer.

Bessel himself had refrained from using the light year as a unit. He may refuse to say distance in the light year because it is considered to interfere with data accuracy. But over time, the unit has actually begun to be proven and popularly used until now.

For example, astronomers find star A close to Earth. Astronomers found that the distance from the star is approximately 40 trillion kilometers from Earth. The distance will be more compact with the TC unit to 4.2 TC.

Astronomers currently have distance data between the earth and several objects in the sky ranging from the Moon, the Sun, to other planets in the Galaxy. Here are some of the data, taken from various sources.

The use of light year units is not only used on a limited basis in one field of science. Here are some benefits of the light year unit.

In addition to knowing the term light year, visit VOI.ID for other interesting information.