How many miles is 4.2 light years

In our galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars, this pushes the number of planets potentially into the trillions. Many of these are small, rocky worlds that might be at the right temperature for liquid water to pool on their surfaces. The nearest-known exoplanet is a small, probably rocky planet orbiting Proxima Centauri — the next star over from Earth. A little more than four light-years away, or 24 trillion miles. If an airline offered a flight there by jet, it would take 5 million years.

Not much is known about this world; its close orbit and the periodic flaring of its star lower its chances of being habitable. And computer modeling shows some have a good chance of being watery — or icy — worlds. In the next few years, we might learn whether they have atmospheres or oceans, or even signs of habitability. One of the most distant exoplanets known to us in the Milky Way is Keplerb. Traveling at light speed, it would take 3, years to get there.

Or 28 billion years, going 60 mph. Exoplanet Travel Bureau. This set of travel posters envision a day when the creativity of scientists and engineers will allow us to do things we can only dream of now. Strange New Worlds. Explore an interactive gallery of some of the most intriguing and exotic planets discovered so far. Historic Timeline. A planetary tour through time. The center of our galaxy is about 27, light-years away.

The nearest spiral galaxy to ours, the Andromeda galaxy, is 2. Some of the most distant galaxies we can see are billions of light-years from us. Measuring in light-years also allows astronomers to determine how far back in time they are viewing. Because light takes time to travel to our eyes, everything we view in the night sky has already happened. In other words, when you observe something 1 light-year away, you see it as it appeared exactly one year ago.

We see the Andromeda galaxy as it appeared 2. The most distant object we can see, the cosmic microwave background , is also our oldest view of the universe, occurring just after the Big Bang some Astronomers also use parsecs as an alternative to the light-year.

Short for parallax-second, a parsec comes from the use of triangulation to determine the distance of stars. One arcsecond is equal to 3. Like degrees, the light-year can also be broken down into smaller units of light-hours, light-minutes or light-seconds. For instance, the sun is more than 8 light-minutes from Earth, while the moon is just over a light-second away.

Scientists use these terms when talking about communications with deep-space satellites or rovers.