AU to Light Years Calculator

Formula

The formula to convert Astronomical Units (AU) to Light Years (LY) is:

\[ \text{LY} = \frac{\text{AU}}{\text{CF}} \]

Where:

\( \text{LY} \) is the light years
\( \text{AU} \) is the astronomical units
\( \text{CF} \) is the conversion factor (approximately 63,241.1 AU per light year)

What is an Astronomical Unit?

An astronomical unit (AU) is a unit of length used in astronomy to describe the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. It is approximately equal to 149,597,870.7 kilometers (92,955,807.3 miles). The AU is a convenient unit for measuring distances within our solar system and is commonly used to express the distances between planets and other celestial objects relative to the Earth-Sun distance.

Example Calculation

Let's assume the following value:

Astronomical Units (AU) = 100,000 AU

Using the formula to convert to Light Years (LY):

\[ \text{LY} = \frac{100000}{63241.1} \approx 1.58125 \text{ light years} \]

The distance is approximately 1.58125 light years.