Light minute

A light minute (also written light-minute) is a unit of length. It is defined as the distance light travels in an absolute vacuum in one minute or 17,987,547,480 metres (~18 Gm). Note that this value is exact, since the metre is actually defined in terms of the light second.

To give an example, the average distance from the Earth to the Sun (or 1 astronomical unit) is 8.317 light minutes.

See also: speed of light