News tagged with light years
Discovery that quasars don't show time dilation mystifies astronomers
(PhysOrg.com) -- The phenomenon of time dilation is a strange yet experimentally confirmed effect of relativity theory. One of its implications is that events occurring in distant parts of the universe should ...
Apr 09, 2010 |
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Massive white dwarf in our galaxy may go supernova
(PhysOrg.com) -- A massive white dwarf star in our galaxy may become a supernova several million years from now, and could damage the Earth and possibly destroy life on Earth.
Jan 07, 2010 |
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Astronomers find most crowded collision of galaxy clusters
The most crowded collision of galaxy clusters has been identified by combining information from three different telescopes. This result gives scientists a chance to learn what happens when some of the largest ...
Apr 16, 2009 |
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Mysterious space blob discovered at cosmic dawn (w/Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers, led by Carnegie's Masami Ouchi, have discovered a mysterious, giant object that existed when the universe was only 800 million years old. Dubbed an extended "Lyman-Alpha ...
Apr 22, 2009 |
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Black hole blows big bubble
Combining observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope, astronomers have uncovered the most powerful pair of jets ever seen from a stellar black hole. This object, also ...
Jul 07, 2010 |
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Astronomers discover biggest black holes ever (Update)
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, ...
Dec 05, 2011 |
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Study says solar systems like ours may be common
(PhysOrg.com) -- Nearly one in four stars like the sun could have Earth-size planets, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study of nearby solar-mass stars.
Oct 28, 2010 |
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X-ray discovery points to location of missing matter
Using observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton, astronomers have announced a robust detection of a vast reservoir of intergalactic gas about 400 million light years from Earth. ...
May 11, 2010 |
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Three times farther away in outer space than previously possible -- a new way to measure cosmic distances
Ohio State University researchers have found a way to measure distances to objects three times farther away in outer space than previously possible, by extending a common measurement technique.
Jun 08, 2009 |
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Gravitational lens reveals details of distant, ancient galaxy
Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, University of Chicago scientists working with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a uniquely close-up look at the brightest gravitationally ...
Mar 08, 2012 |
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Astronomers identify 12-billion-year-old white dwarf stars
A University of Oklahoma assistant professor and colleagues have identified two white dwarf stars considered the oldest and closest known to man. Astronomers identified these 11- to 12-billion-year-old white dwarf stars only ...
Apr 11, 2012 |
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Baby star blasts jets of water into space
Astronomers have found a nascent star 750 light years from earth that shoots colossal jets of water -- a cosmic fire hose -- out its poles in bullet-like pulses.
Jun 22, 2011 |
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Massive planet is being torn apart by its own tides
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international group of astrophysicists has determined that a massive planet outside our Solar System is being distorted and destroyed by its host star--a finding that helps ...
Feb 24, 2010 |
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Invisible light discovers the most distant cluster of galaxies
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers from Japan and Germany has discovered the most distant cluster of galaxies known so far-9.6 billion light years away.
May 10, 2010 |
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Two new brown dwarf Solar neighbors discovered
Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have discovered two new brown dwarfs at estimated distances of only 15 and 18 light years from the Sun. For comparison: The next star to ...
Jul 15, 2011 |
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Light-year
A light-year or light year (symbol: ly) is a unit of length, equal to just under 1013 kilometres. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year.
The light-year is often used to measure distances to stars and other distances on a galactic scale, especially in non-specialist and popular science publications. The preferred unit in astrometry is the parsec, because it can be more easily derived from, and compared with, observational data. The parsec is defined as the distance at which an object will appear to move one arcsecond of parallax when the observer moves one astronomical unit perpendicular to the line of sight to the observer, and is equal to approximately 3.26 light-years.
The related unit of the light-month, roughly one-twelfth of a light-year, is also used occasionally for approximate measures.
For more information about Light-year, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
