When you like to study the universe and the space, it is normal that you find yourself looking at light years and kilometers. However, when you are simply referring to light years, you may have some difficulties in having a clear picture of how they translate into kilometers, which is a much more common metric.
So, before we start talking about how you can easily use our free convert light years to kilometers calculator, we believe that it is important to define each one of these units in the first place.
What Is A Light Year?
Simply put, a light year is the distance that the light travels in one year. Notice that the year that is considered for this effect has 365.25 days and it is the year that is used by the International Astronomical Union.
Astronauts only use the light year because the distances across the universe are incredibly large. So, if they use kilometers instead, they would need to use very large numbers.
While the light year tends to be the measure that is the most common when we are talking about huge distances, astronauts also use others such as the parsec. In case you don’t know, the prasec is equal to 3.26 light years.
What Is A Kilometer?
A kilometer (or kilometre) is a unit of length that is equal to 0.621 miles or 1,000 meters. The kilometer is the most common unit that is used all over the world when you need to measure the distance between places.
Convert Light Years To Kilometers – The Formula
When you are looking to convert light years to kilometers, you will need to use a formula.
Considering that:
1 ly = 9460730472580 km
1 km = 1.0570008340247E-13 ly
Let’s say that you want to convert 15 light years to kilometers:
15 ly = 15 × 9460730472580 km = 1.419109570887E+14 km
Light Year to Kilometer Conversion Table
| Light Year [ly] | Kilometer [km] |
| 0.01 ly | 94607304725.8 km |
| 0.1 ly | 946073047258 km |
| 1 ly | 9460730472580 km |
| 2 ly | 18921460945160 km |
| 3 ly | 28382191417740 km |
| 5 ly | 47303652362900 km |
| 10 ly | 94607304725800 km |
| 20 ly | 1.892146094516E+14 km |
| 50 ly | 4.73036523629E+14 km |
| 100 ly | 9.46073047258E+14 km |
| 1000 ly | 9.46073047258E+15 km |
Using Our Calculator To Convert Light Years To Kilometers
When you are looking to convert light years to kilometers, there is nothing better than using our free calculator to easily determine the distance that you want.
All you need to do is to insert the number of units and then choose what to want to convert. One of the best things about our free calculator is that you can either convert light years to kilometers as vice versa. Besides, we have always added other measurements such as light seconds, light minutes, miles and parsecs to ensure that you can easily convert any astronomy unit to the unit that you want.