Light year One light year ( abbreviated ly ) was a unit of measurement used for establishing distance from one location to another in space . The length of this unit was standardized by the UFP Standards Measurement Bureau . Other spacefaring species , such as the Sheliak , had their own unit of distance . ( ; ) Examples . Located less than twenty light years from the Sol system , Terra Nova became the first extrasolar colony of Earth in 2078 . ( ) In May 2151 , found the Triglobulin harvester ' s starship almost three light years away from the nearest star system . ( ) In February 2152 , Captain Jonathan Archer told Keyla Terrana that Risa was located ninety light years from Sol and was the furthest any of his people had gone at that point . ( ) In September 2152 , " Enterprise " was in orbit of an uninhabited planet . At this time the ship was over one - hundred light years away from Earth and more than twenty light years away from the Takret homeworld . It encountered a neutronic wave front which spans more than half a dozen light years . ( ) Later that year , " Enterprise " discovered what would be determined to be a 31st century time travel pod . At that point , " Enterprise " was a hundred light years from Earth and more than thirty light years from the nearest trade route with no other ships or ships or inhabited star systems for several light years , making the matter of the initially unidentified craft and its human pilot a mystery . ( ) When the computer identified the numerical sequence sent by the Borg into the Delta Quadrant in 2153 , it became pulsar frequencies with geometric light year measurements . ( ) In the Treaty of Armens ( 2255 ) , it was stipulated , " " Third party assistance may be requested from a Federation Starfleet vessel or a Sheliak Corporate spacecraft if the distance from the vessel to the respective homeworld is greater than five thousand ( 5 . 0 ) light years . UFP Standards Measurement Bureau Units . Assistance may also be requested if the vessel is less than 1 , 000 light years from a standard UFP subspace relay booster station . " " ( ) Eagle - 12 , containing a Federation space station , and Gamma Hydra , home to an Andorian colony , were respectively located three and six light years away from a binary star system at the edge of Federation space . As such , they were considered vulnerable to Klingon attack should the fail to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the " Sarcophagus " prior to the Battle of the Binary Stars . ( ) In 2256 , the , using an experimental spore drive , managed to travel back and forth into the Beta Quadrant , a ninety light year jump , in 1 . 3 second s . ( ) In 2293 , the , having just left Earth Spacedock , was three light years away from the transport ship s and when they were caught up in the Nexus , making the " Enterprise " the closest Starfleet ship to mount a rescue . ( ) In 2364 , the was hurled 2 , 700 , 000 light years , through two galaxies , to the Triangulum Galaxy by the Traveler during warp field tests . In an attempt to return to their last position , the " Enterprise " was again brought forward over a billion light years to the end of the universe , the furthest point reached by a Starfleet vessel . Ultimately , however , the Traveler was able to reverse the course and return " Enterprise " back to where it started . ( ) In 2365 , Q propelled the " Enterprise " seven thousand light years to System J - 25 , and back again following their first contact with the Borg . ( ) When Commander Benjamin Sisko welcomed the first guest from the Gamma Quadrant in the Alpha Quadrant , a , he told him that he traveled almost ninety thousand light years through the wormhole . ( ) In 2369 , a Vanoben transport was raided two light years away from Deep Space 9 . ( ) The same year , Sisko told Kai Opaka that the Gamma Quadrant is seventy thousand light years away from Bajor . ( ) The Caretaker ' s array was capable of generating a displacement wave capable of dragging ships many light years across the Milky Way Galaxy , doing so in 2371 when it swept the Maquis ship " Val Jean " and the over seventy thousand light years from the Badlands to its position in the Delta Quadrant . ( ) Quark recalled that he was serving on a Ferengi freighter hundreds of light years from Ferenginar when the Great Monetary Collapse hit . ( ) In 2373 , the was transporting the Orb of Time back to Bajor when Arne Darvin used it to transport the " Defiant " back in time to the year 2268 over two hundred light years from their last position , where they found the in orbit of Deep Space Station K - 7 . ( ) Travelling from 2373 to 2063 , Captain Jean - Luc Picard characterized the United Federation of Planets to Lily Sloane as consisting of over one - hundred fifty member worlds spread across eight thousand light years . ( ) In 2374 , as her final gift to the " Voyager " crew , Kes propelled the ship over nine thousand five hundred light years closer to Earth , eliminating ten years off the crew ' s journey . ( ) Later that year , " Voyager " discovered an ancient relay network spanning across the galaxy , which they used to locate and contact the , a Starfleet vessel on the edge of the Alpha Quadrant over 60 , 000 light years away . ( ) The Hirogen pursued a member of Species 8472 across fifty light years . A group of Hirogen ship s pursued the prey to " Voyager ' s " position ; with the nearest ship half a light year away , Chakotay predicted that " Voyager " would be intercepted within four hours maximum . ( ) " Voyager " spent a month crossing a nebula which spanned one hundred ten light years . ( ) At the end of that year , " Voyager " used a quantum slipstream drive to travel three hundred light years before it collapsed . Several months later , the crew revisited this technology and were able to travel another ten thousand light years before the slipstream dispersed . The technology was deemed too dangerous for use after this occurrence and was dismantled . ( ) " " was a region in the Delta Quadrant where no star system s existed within a distance of two thousand five hundred light years which could be passed in an instant via a spatial vortex , which was used by " Voyager " in early 2375 . ( ) In 2378 , " Voyager " Captain Kathryn Janeway credited the feat of making more first contact s than any other Federation starship since the era of James T . Kirk and the original to being " " the only Federation starship within thirty thousand light years . " " ( ) Later that year , Sphere 634 , containing " Voyager " , passed through a transwarp conduit and arrived less than a light year from Earth . ( ) In the 26th century of a possible future presented to Jonathan Archer by temporal agent , the Battle of Procyon V was fought amid a trans - dimensional disturbance created by the Sphere Builder s that extended fifty thousand light years in all directions and growing . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The light year is the distance that light travels in one Earth year . It is approximately equal to 9 . 46 kilometer s , or 5 . 88 mile s . The exact length of a light year depends on the exact length used for one " Earth year " . The uses a of 365 . 25 days , while other sources may use a of 365 . 2425 days , or another year altogether .