What do you understand by the statement that a star is 8 light years away from the Earth?

The distance between the Earth and stars and the distance between the stars is very large. It is inconvenient to express these distances in kilometres. Therefore, these large distances are expressed in light years.


1 light year= 9.46 × 1012 Km. Now, a star is 8 light years away from the Earth. It means the distance between the star and the Earth is equal to the distance travelled by light in eight years.


Therefore, the star is located 8 × 9.46 × 1012 Km = 75.68 × 1012 Km away from the Earth.

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