Convert Light Years (ly) to Micrometres (μm)

The light year is a unit of length in the Astronomical system of units. It uses the symbol ly.

Often confused with a unit of time as it contains the word "year", it is actually defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as the amount of distance that light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days).

Using the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s or 'c') and the Julian year (as apposed to the Gregorian year which is 365.2425 days), we can equivalate 1 light year as 9,460,730,472,580,800 metres or ≈ 9.46 trillion kilometres.

The micrometre (American spelling micrometer) is a unit of length and is a multiple of the SI unit metre. It uses the symbol μm.

It represents one millionth of a metre and is also known by its previously depreciated name micron.

In the US, the term 'micron' helped distinguish the unit name from the device 'micrometer' but the International System of Units (SI) discontinued this term in favour of micrometre as the prefix system required the use of the Greek symbol 'μ' which invoked the factor x10−6.