Convert light-years to kilometers

Explanation

From this page you can convert light-years to kilometers (or ly to km) simply, by using the application above.

In case you are wondering, to convert from light-years to kilometers you need to multiply by 9.4607 × 10¹². This factor is calculated using the respective definitions of the two units you can find below.

Formula

1 ly≈9.4607 × 10¹² km

light-yearsly

dimension	length
symbol	ly

The light-year (ly) is a unit of length.

It is used to measure astronomical distances like the one between stars or the size of galaxies in popular science publications. It is superseded by the parsec in scientific contexts.

Definition of the light-year

A light-year is the distance that light travels in vacuum in one julian year (i.e. 365.25 days of 86400 seconds each).

Value in terms of the SI

One light-year is equivalent to 9460730472580800 meters.

Equivalences

One light-year is also equivalent to:

Some Facts

After the Sun, Proxima Centauri is the nearest star. Nearest and yet extremely far away, 4.244 light-years (25 trillion miles) from Earth. We have to agree that in a first approximation, the universe is almost empty. And yet, here we are, converting things to light-years.

Other Light Lengths

light-nanosecond	lns	0.000 000 001
light-microsecond	lµs	0.000 001
light-millisecond	lms	0.001
light-second	ls	1
light-minute	lmin	60
light-hour	lh	3600
light-day	ld	86 400
light-year	ly	31 557 600
kilolight-year	kly	31 557 600 000
megalight-year	Mly	31 557 600 000 000
gigalight-year	Gly	31 557 600 000 000 000

Related Conversions

kilometerskm

dimension	length
system	International system of units (SI)
symbol	km

The kilometer (km) is a unit of length in the International System of Units.

In ascending order, the kilometer comes after the hectometer and before the megameter.

Definition of the kilometer

One kilometer is equal to 1000 meters.

Equivalences

One kilometer is equivalent to:

Some Facts

The Kármán line is the arbitrary upper limit of the atmosphere. It is set 100 kilometers (62 miles) high.
The top of Mount Everest, the most prominent montain on Earth, is more than 8.8 kilometers above sea level.

Prefix

kilo

10³

The prefix kilo- comes from the ancient Greek chilioi meaning thousand. The associated multiplicative factor is 1000 or 10³.

Metric length units

femtometer	fm	0.000 000 000 000 001
picometer	pm	0.000 000 000 001
nanometer	nm	0.000 000 001
micrometer	µm	0.000 001
millimeter	mm	0.001
centimeter	cm	0.01
decimeter	dm	0.1
meter	m	1
dekameter	dam	10
hectometer	hm	100
kilometer	km	1000
megameter	Mm	1 000 000
gigameter	Gm	1 000 000 000
terameter	Tm	1 000 000 000 000
petameter	Pm	1 000 000 000 000 000
exameter	Em	1 000 000 000 000 000 000

The International System of Units

The International System of Units or SI (from the French Système international (d'unité)), also called metric system in the U.S., is a coherent system of units that was published 1960. It is official in nearly every country.

The General Conference on Weights and Measures (Conférence générale des poids et mesures) is tasked with overseeing the SI.