Scott Air Force Base, IL Demographic Information *. There is no Census data for the city of SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, IL. We have pulled information for the ZIP Code 62225 instead.
A light-year is a unit of distance. It is the distance that light can travel in one year. Light moves at a velocity of about 300,000 kilometers (km) each second. So in one year, it can travel about 10 trillion km. More p recisely, one light-year is equal to 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers.
Because 6 trillion miles is such a huge number, we really need to break it down to understand just how far it is. So let's start by looking at a light second. Since light moves at 186,000 miles per second, a lightsecond is 186,000 miles. The moon is about 1.3 lightseconds away. Since the circumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles, light could travel all the way around the earth 7 and a half times in one second.