Astronomical unit (au)
One astronomical unit is the distance between the sun and the earth, or 149, 597,871 kilometers. (92,955,807.3) Astronomical units are used when talking about distances on a planetary scale, or measuring distances within the Solar System.
Light year (ly)
One light year is the distance light travels in a year, or approximately 9.4605284 x 10^15 meters. It is about 63,239.7236 astronomical units and it is used when referring to objects that are far away or intergalactic.
Unit of Measurement
Astronomical Units (Mars and Andromeda) Light Years (Mars and Andromeda) |
Distance in kilometers
92 million kilometers and 21, 800,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers .00000076051 light years and 2,538,000 light years |
Scientific Notation of the Distance
92 x 10^6 and 21.8 x 10^18 7.6051 x 10^-8 and 2.538 x 10^6 |