Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
When astronomers describe stars, galaxies and other denizens of the universe, they use units very different from those we use for objects here on earth:
to measure use approx equal
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distance light year 10^16 m
parsec (pc) 3.1 x 10^16 m
kiloparsec (kpc) 3.1 x 10^19 m
megaparcsec (Mpc) 3.1 x 10^22 m
mass solar mass 2 x 10^30 kg for stars
Jupiter mass 2 x 10^27 kg for planets
luminosity solar luminosity 4 x 10^26 Watts
speed km/sec 2200 mph
Copyright © Michael Richmond.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.