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Cosmic Distances
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Kiloparsec
A Kiloparsec represents one thousand parsecs and is used for galactic scale distances. The Milky Way’s diameter is about 30 kiloparsecs.
Light Year
A Light Year is the distance light travels in one earth year, approximately 9.46 trillion kilometers. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.24 light years away.
Megaparsec
A Megaparsec is one million parsecs. It is a common unit for measuring distances between galaxies. The Virgo Cluster is about 16.5 Megaparsecs from Earth.
Parsec
A Parsec is equivalent to about 3.26 light years, or 30.9 trillion kilometers. It's based on the parallax angle of one arcsecond. The Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 778,000 parsecs from Earth.
Gigaparsec
A Gigaparsec is one billion parsecs and is one of the largest units for cosmic distances, often used to denote the size of the observable universe. The observable universe is estimated to be about 0.27 to 0.28 gigaparsecs in radius.
Astronomical Unit
An Astronomical Unit (AU) is the average distance from Earth to the Sun, which is about 150 million kilometers. The planet Jupiter is roughly 5.2 AUs from the Sun.
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