A terametre is one trillion metres, or one billion kilometres. Because it equals roughly 6.68 astronomical units, astrophysicists use it to describe planetary orbits and the scale of solar systems. For scale, light takes about 55 minutes to travel one terametre, making it a practical metric alternative to light-hours or astronomical units when calculating interplanetary distances.
Heard on the job
The probe is 1.4 terametres out, so expect a heavy signal delay when we send the command.
Insider tip
One terametre is slightly larger than the radius of Jupiter's orbit, making it a handy mental yardstick for the scale of the solar system.
Also heard as
- Tm