A light-year, a unit commonly used in astronomy, is a measurement of what physical quantity?

Explanation

Despite its name suggesting a unit of time, a light-year is actually a unit of distance, specifically representing how far light travels in the vacuum of space over the course of one full year, a distance of roughly 9.46 trillion kilometers. Because distances between stars and galaxies are so enormous, astronomers use the light-year as a convenient way to express these vast distances in more manageable numbers. When astronomers observe an object located a certain number of light-years away, they are effectively seeing light that left that object that many years in the past. Explore more Everyday Science MCQs on mcqstutor to keep practicing.