Speed of light they appeared 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than a billion years old. The fact that more distant objects appear to be younger, due to the finite speed of light, allows astronomers to infer the evolution of stars, of galaxies, and of the universe itself. Astronomical distances are sometimes expressed in light-years, especially in popular science publications and media. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, around 9461 billion kilometres, 5879 billion miles, or 0.3066 parsecs. In round figures, a light year is nearly 10 trillion kilometres or nearly 6 trillion miles. Proxima Centauri,
26 Miles (Santa Catalina) "Forty kilometres in a leaky old boat . . .", a rare mention of a metric unit in American popular music, and a tolerably accurate conversion (26 miles = 41.8 km). 26 Miles (Santa Catalina) "26 Miles (Santa Catalina)" is a popular song by the 1950s and 1960s pop band The Four Preps. It reached number two on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number six on the "Billboard" R&B chart in 1958. The song sold over a million copies and the group appeared on several television shows, including "The Gisele MacKenzie Show" (March 15, 1958) and "The Ed Sullivan Show".