Does Light Year's Work?

A light-year is a measurement of distance and not time (as the name might suggest). A light-year is the distance a beam of light travels in a single Earth year, or 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers). On the scale of the universe, measuring distances in miles or kilometers doesn't cut it.

Can humans travel a light-year?

Saying we were a space shuttle that travelled five miles per second, given that the speed of light travels at 186,282 miles per second, it would take about 37,200 human years to travel one light year.

How long does it take for 1 light-year?

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. How far is that? Multiply the number of seconds in one year by the number of miles or kilometers that light travels in one second, and there you have it: one light-year. It's about 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).