A Briefer History of Time

nearest star, other than our sun, is called Proxima Centauri (also known as Alpha Centauri C), which is about four light-years away. That is so far that even with the fastest spaceship on the drawing boards today, a trip to it would take about ten thousand years.

We are lucky to live in an age in which we are still making discoveries. It is like the discovery of America—y ou only discover it once. The age in which we live is the age in which we are discovering the fundamental laws of nature

Instead we use the light-year, which is the distance light travels in a year. In one second, a beam of light will travel 186,000 miles, so a light-year is a very long distance.