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What is a light-year?

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... light-year in astronomy, unit of length equal to the distance light travels in one sidereal year . It is 9.461 × 10 12 km (about 6 million million mi). Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri, the stars nearest our solar system, are about 4.3 light-years distant. See also parsec .

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Get more facts and information about light-year . Or, view the full encyclopedia entry from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.

Similar questions: What is a parsec? How far is Alpha Centauri from the earth using light-years? How is the length of a light-year expressed? [ Hide these questions ]

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