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  In space, Light travels at a speed of 299,792,46 km a second or  1,079,252,956 km an hour. When we look at even the nearest star, we see light that left it more than four years ago. Here are the times it takes light to reach Earth from various bodies in space. Light years     A light year measures distance, not time. Distance in space are often described as light years. The distance light travels in a year. Moon 1.26 seconds. Sun 8 minutes 17 seconds. Furthest planet (Neptune) 4 hours 21 minutes when the planet is at its  maximum distance from Earth. Nearest star 4.22 years distance at which the Sun would no longer be visible to the naked eye 60 years. Most distant sta r in our galaxy 62,700 years. From nearest body outside our galaxy 174,000 years. Furthest visible star 2,309,000 years. Most distant known quasar 14,000,000,000 years.

Groups of stars form patterns in the night sky, which are called constellations. There are 88 known constellations. The sumerians, a Middle Eastern civilization, probably named them, about 5,000 years ago.    The largest is Hydra, the sea serpent, and the smallest is Crux Australis, the Southern Cross. Centaurus, the Centaur. Has the most stars that can be seen with the naked eye(94). Others include Aquila, the Eagle; Canis Major, the Great Dog; and Orion, the Hunter.

    Galaxies are groups of billions of stars held together by the force of gravity. Most are either spiral or elliptical, but some are irregular in shape. The Milky Way   This is the best-known galaxy. The word galaxy comes from the Greek for milk. Before telescopes were powerful enough to prove that they were made up of individual stars, galaxies looked like milky or cloudy areas in the sky. Our Solar System is only one of 100 -200 billion stars in the Milky way, which is 100,000 light years in diameter. The Sun and all the planets take about 200,000,000 years to complete on orbit around its centre. Brightest   The Large Magellanic Cloud, which is visible only in the southern hemisphere, is 170,000 light years from Earth and 39,000 light years in diameter. Largest   The central galaxy of the Abell 2029 galaxy cluster was discovered in 1990. It is 1,070 million light years ...

  A star is a luminous body of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. Stars generate light, which makes it possible for us to see them with a telescope or the naked eye. ·          Brightest   Not counting the sun, the brightest star as seen from   Earth is Sirius, known as the dog star, in the constellation of Canis Major. It has a diameter of 149,598,020 km and is more than 24 times brighter than the Sun, The star LBV 1806 – 20 in the constellation of Sagittarius may be 40 million times as bright as our sun, but dust clouds make it almost invisible from Earth. ·           Largest   The largest star in VY Canis Majoris, which has an estimated diameter of about 1.950 times greater than the sun. For comparison, if it were a football, th sun would be no bigger than a pinhead. ·       ...