ELI5… How do light years work?

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Okay, I need some discussion. I love love love reading about the universe and such. All the stars and planets out there, it’s amazing to me! But I’ve never been able to understand light years. Like, we could be looking at something in the sky and be all “Ooooh that’s a bright star!” But it’s 100 light years away and for all we know the star is actually dead and we are seeing the light as it had been traveling to us but died previously. This just goes right over my head. How do we just determine all these objects in the sky are so far… how do we know how far the light from thst object has been traveling? Please help lol! How do we also see planets so far away… I know we have amazing technology but damn… that’s insane to be able to see objects just so far away! I also think there must be some form of life out there. There’s no way we are the only planet with something living on it! Thanks for your input!

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Ok, that helped a lot with understanding. I just find it all fascinating but man I just couldn’t understand light years no matter what I read. Thanks!

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