noun
- a unit of astronomical distance equal to 1,000 parsecs or approximately 3,260 light-years
Usage: astronomy
Examples
- The Andromeda Galaxy is located about 780 kiloparsecs from Earth.
- Astronomers measure distances between galaxies in kiloparsecs.
- The galactic halo extends several kiloparsecs from the center.
- Star formation rates are often calculated per kiloparsec squared.
- The nearest large galaxy cluster is millions of kiloparsecs away.
- Radio telescopes can detect signals from sources many kiloparsecs distant.