Light-Years to Parsecs Converter

Radar Ranging (Solar System)

Range: Up to 50 AU
Method: Radio wave reflection
Accuracy: Meters to kilometers
Used for: Planets, asteroids

Stellar Parallax (Nearby Stars)

Range: Up to 1,000 parsecs
Method: Apparent position shift
Accuracy: 1-10%
Used for: Distance to nearby stars

Standard Candles (Galaxies)

Range: Up to 100 megaparsecs
Method: Cepheid variables, supernovae
Accuracy: 10-20%
Used for: Galaxy distances

Redshift (Universe Scale)

Range: Billions of light-years
Method: Hubble's Law
Accuracy: 10-30%
Used for: Distant galaxies, quasars

Example 1: Nearest Star

Proxima Centauri: 4.24 light-years
Parsecs: 4.24 / 3.262 = 1.30 pc
Kilometers: 4.24 × 9.461 × 10¹² = 4.01 × 10¹³ km
AU: 4.24 × 63,241 = 268,142 AU

Example 2: Andromeda Galaxy

Distance: 2.537 million light-years
Megaparsecs: 2.537 / 3.262 = 0.778 Mpc
Kilometers: 2.4 × 10¹⁹ km
Light travel time: 2.537 million years

Example 3: Galactic Center

Distance: 8 kiloparsecs
Light-years: 8 × 3,262 = 26,096 ly
Kilometers: 2.47 × 10¹⁷ km
From Earth to Milky Way center

Example 4: Observable Universe

Radius: 46.5 billion light-years
Gigaparsecs: 46.5 × 10⁹ / 3.262 × 10⁹ = 14.26 Gpc
Diameter: 93 billion light-years
Comoving distance includes expansion