light-year
Proxima Centauri is about 4.24 light-years from Earth. This topic is part of Astronomy within Science & Nature. This page currently draws on 15 supporting questions, with answers and bonus facts available below.
light-year trivia questions
A light-year measures what?
Answer: Distance
Bonus fact: It is the distance light travels in one year.
A light-year is approximately how many trillion kilometers?
Answer: 9.46
Bonus fact: Light travels about 9.46 trillion kilometers in a year.
The nearest star beyond the Sun is a little over four light-years away. What is it?
Answer: Proxima Centauri
Bonus fact: Proxima Centauri is about 4.24 light-years from Earth.
Why can quasars be seen from billions of light-years away?
Answer: They are extraordinarily luminous
Bonus fact: Accretion around supermassive black holes can outshine entire galaxies.
Which large galaxy is the nearest major spiral galaxy to the Milky Way?
Answer: Andromeda Galaxy
Bonus fact: The Andromeda Galaxy is about 2.5 million light-years away and is moving toward the Milky Way.
The Pillars of Creation are giant columns of gas and dust in which nebula?
Answer: Eagle Nebula
Bonus fact: They are part of a star-forming region about thousands of light-years from Earth.
Kepler-22b is what kind of object?
Answer: An exoplanet
Bonus fact: It orbits a star similar to the Sun about 600 light-years away.
Kepler-186f is what type of astronomical object?
Answer: An exoplanet
Bonus fact: It orbits a red dwarf star hundreds of light-years from Earth.
K2-18b is what kind of object?
Answer: An exoplanet
Bonus fact: It orbits a red dwarf star about 120 light-years from Earth.
TOI-700 d is what kind of object?
Answer: An exoplanet
Bonus fact: It orbits a small red dwarf star about 100 light-years away.
LHS 1140 b is what?
Answer: An exoplanet
Bonus fact: It orbits a small red dwarf star roughly 50 light-years away.
Which observatory made the first direct detection of gravitational waves?
Answer: LIGO
Bonus fact: The detected waves came from the merger of two black holes more than a billion light-years away.