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What is the speed of light? Here’s the history, discovery of the cosmic speed limit

On one hand, the speed of light is just a number: 299,792,458 meters per second. And on the other, it’s one of the most important constants that appears in nature and defines the relationship of causality itself.

As far as we can measure, it is a constant. It is the same speed for every observer in the entire universe. This constancy was first established in the late 1800’s with the experiments of Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at Case Western Reserve University . They attempted to measure changes in the speed of light as the Earth orbited around the Sun. They found no such variation, and no experiment ever since then has either.

Observations of the cosmic microwave background, the light released when the universe was 380,000 years old, show that the speed of light hasn’t measurably changed in over 13.8 billion years.

In fact, we now define the speed of light to be a constant, with a precise speed of 299,792,458 meters per second. While it remains a remote possibility in deeply theoretical physics that light may not be a constant, for all known purposes it is a constant, so it’s better to just define it and move on with life.

How was the speed of light first measured?

In 1676 the Danish astronomer Ole Christensen Romer made the first quantitative measurement of how fast light travels. He carefully observed the orbit of Io, the innermost moon of Jupiter. As the Earth circles the Sun in its own orbit, sometimes it approaches Jupiter and sometimes it recedes away from it. When the Earth is approaching Jupiter, the path that light has to travel from Io is shorter than when the Earth is receding away from Jupiter. By carefully measuring the changes to Io’s orbital period, Romer calculated a speed of light of around 220,000 kilometers per second.

Observations continued to improve until by the 19 th century astronomers and physicists had developed the sophistication to get very close to the modern value. In 1865, James Clerk Maxwell made a remarkable discovery. He was investigating the properties of electricity and magnetism, which for decades had remained mysterious in unconnected laboratory experiments around the world. Maxwell found that electricity and magnetism were really two sides of the same coin, both manifestations of a single electromagnetic force.

As Maxwell explored the consequences of his new theory, he found that changing magnetic fields can lead to changing electric fields, which then lead to a new round of changing magnetic fields. The fields leapfrog over each other and can even travel through empty space. When Maxwell went to calculate the speed of these electromagnetic waves, he was surprised to see the speed of light pop out – the first theoretical calculation of this important number.

What is the most precise measurement of the speed of light?

Because it is defined to be a constant, there’s no need to measure it further. The number we’ve defined is it, with no uncertainty, no error bars. It’s done. But the speed of light is just that – a speed. The number we choose to represent it depends on the units we use: kilometers versus miles, seconds versus hours, and so on. In fact, physicists commonly just set the speed of light to be 1 to make their calculations easier. So instead of trying to measure the speed light travels, physicists turn to more precisely measuring other units, like the length of the meter or the duration of the second. In other words, the defined value of the speed of light is used to establish the length of other units like the meter.

How does light slow down?

Yes, the speed of light is always a constant. But it slows down whenever it travels through a medium like air or water. How does this work? There are a few different ways to present an answer to this question, depending on whether you prefer a particle-like picture or a wave-like picture.

In a particle-like picture, light is made of tiny little bullets called photons. All those photons always travel at the speed of light, but as light passes through a medium those photons get all tangled up, bouncing around among all the molecules of the medium. This slows down the overall propagation of light, because it takes more time for the group of photons to make it through.

In a wave-like picture, light is made of electromagnetic waves. When these waves pass through a medium, they get all the charged particles in motion, which in turn generate new electromagnetic waves of their own. These interfere with the original light, forcing it to slow down as it passes through.

Either way, light always travels at the same speed, but matter can interfere with its travel, making it slow down.

Why is the speed of light important?

The speed of light is important because it’s about way more than, well, the speed of light. In the early 1900’s Einstein realized just how special this speed is. The old physics, dominated by the work of Isaac Newton, said that the universe had a fixed reference frame from which we could measure all motion. This is why Michelson and Morley went looking for changes in the speed, because it should change depending on our point of view. But their experiments showed that the speed was always constant, so what gives?

Einstein decided to take this experiment at face value. He assumed that the speed of light is a true, fundamental constant. No matter where you are, no matter how fast you’re moving, you’ll always see the same speed.

This is wild to think about. If you’re traveling at 99% the speed of light and turn on a flashlight, the beam will race ahead of you at…exactly the speed of light, no more, no less. If you’re coming from the opposite direction, you’ll still also measure the exact same speed.

This constancy forms the basis of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which tells us that while all motion is relative – different observers won’t always agree on the length of measurements or the duration of events – some things are truly universal, like the speed of light.

Can you go faster than light speed?

Nope. Nothing can. Any particle with zero mass must travel at light speed. But anything with mass (which is most of the universe) cannot. The problem is relativity. The faster you go, the more energy you have. But we know from Einstein’s relativity that energy and mass are the same thing. So the more energy you have, the more mass you have, which makes it harder for you to go even faster. You can get as close as you want to the speed of light, but to actually crack that barrier takes an infinite amount of energy. So don’t even try.

How is the speed at which light travels related to causality?

If you think you can find a cheat to get around the limitations of light speed, then I need to tell you about its role in special relativity. You see, it’s not just about light. It just so happens that light travels at this special speed, and it was the first thing we discovered to travel at this speed. So it could have had another name. Indeed, a better name for this speed might be “the speed of time.”

Related: Is time travel possible? An astrophysicist explains

We live in a universe of causes and effects. All effects are preceded by a cause, and all causes lead to effects. The speed of light limits how quickly causes can lead to effects. Because it’s a maximum speed limit for any motion or interaction, in a given amount of time there’s a limit to what I can influence. If I want to tap you on the shoulder and you’re right next to me, I can do it right away. But if you’re on the other side of the planet, I have to travel there first. The motion of me traveling to you is limited by the speed of light, so that sets how quickly I can tap you on the shoulder – the speed light travels dictates how quickly a single cause can create an effect.

The ability to go faster than light would allow effects to happen before their causes. In essence, time travel into the past would be possible with faster-than-light travel. Since we view time as the unbroken chain of causes and effects going from the past to the future, breaking the speed of light would break causality, which would seriously undermine our sense of the forward motion of time.

Why does light travel at this speed?

No clue. It appears to us as a fundamental constant of nature. We have no theory of physics that explains its existence or why it has the value that it does. We hope that a future understanding of nature will provide this explanation, but right now all investigations are purely theoretical. For now, we just have to take it as a given.

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What is the speed of light?

Light is faster than anything else in the known universe, though its speed can change depending on what it's passing through.

The universe has a speed limit, and it's the speed of light. Nothing can travel faster than light — not even our best spacecraft — according to the laws of physics.

So, what is the speed of light? 

Light moves at an incredible 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second), equivalent to almost 700 million mph (more than 1 billion km/h). That's fast enough to circumnavigate the globe 7.5 times in one second, while a typical passenger jet would take more than two days to go around once (and that doesn't include stops for fuel or layovers!). 

Light moves so fast that, for much of human history, we thought it traveled instantaneously. As early as the late 1600s, though, scientist Ole Roemer was able to measure the speed of light (usually referred to as c ) by using observations of Jupiter's moons, according to Britannica . 

Around the turn of the 19th century, physicist James Clerk Maxwell created his theories of electromagnetism . Light is itself made up of electric and magnetic fields, so electromagnetism could describe the behavior and motion of light — including its theoretical speed. That value was 299,788 kilometers per second, with a margin of error of plus or minus 30. In the 1970s, physicists used lasers to measure the speed of light with much greater precision, leaving an error of only 0.001. Nowadays, the speed of light is used to define units of length, so its value is fixed; humans have essentially agreed the speed of light is 299,792.458 kilometers per second, exactly.

Light doesn't always have to go so fast, though. Depending on what it's traveling through — air, water, diamonds, etc. — it can slow down. The official speed of light is measured as if it's traveling in a vacuum, a space with no air or anything to get in the way. You can most clearly see differences in the speed of light in something like a prism, where certain energies of light bend more than others, creating a rainbow.

— How many moons does Earth have ?

— What would happen if the moon were twice as close to Earth?

— If you're on the moon, does the Earth appear to go through phases?

Interestingly, the speed of light is no match for the vast distances of space, which is itself a vacuum. It takes 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach Earth, and a couple years for light from the other closest stars (like Proxima Centauri) to get to our planet. This is why astronomers use the unit light-years — the distance light can travel in one year — to measure vast distances in space.

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Because of this universal speed limit, telescopes are essentially time machines . When astronomers look at a star 500 light-years away, they're looking at light from 500 years ago. Light from around 13 billion light-years away (equivalently, 13 billion years ago) shows up as the cosmic microwave background, remnant radiation from the Big Bang in the universe's infancy. The speed of light isn't just a quirk of physics; it has enabled modern astronomy as we know it, and it shapes the way we see the world — literally.

Briley Lewis (she/her) is a freelance science writer and Ph.D. Candidate/NSF Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles studying Astronomy & Astrophysics. Follow her on Twitter  @briles_34 or visit her website  www.briley-lewis.com .

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• Kooperkieri54 That's correct. In a vacuum, such as outer space, light travels at a constant speed of approximately 299,792 kilometers per second (or about 186,282 miles per second), which is often rounded to 300,000 kilometers per second for simplicity. This speed is commonly referred to as the speed of light in a vacuum and is denoted by the symbol "c". However, when light passes through a medium, such as air, water, or glass, its speed can change. This change in speed is due to the interaction of light with the atoms or molecules in the medium. The speed of light in a medium is typically slower than its speed in a vacuum because the particles in the medium can absorb and re-emit photons, causing a delay in the overall propagation of light. The change in speed of light in different materials is characterized by the refractive index of the material. The refractive index indicates how much the speed of light is reduced when it passes through that particular material compared to its speed in a vacuum. It's worth noting that while light is the fastest known phenomenon in the universe, it is not instantaneous . what pickleball paddles do the prose use. It still takes time for light to travel from one point to another, and its speed is an essential aspect of many fundamental theories and principles in physics. Reply
• marcuso I thought the speed of an event was relative, with all observers having their own space time, therfore how does this fit into 2 observers seeing the same speed of light ? Reply
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Light Year Calculator

What is light year, how to calculate light years.

With this light year calculator, we aim to help you calculate the distance that light can travel in a certain amount of time . You can also check out our speed of light calculator to understand more about this topic.

We have written this article to help you understand what a light year is and how to calculate a light year using the light year formula . We will also demonstrate some examples to help you understand the light year calculation.

A light year is a unit of measurement used in astronomy to describe the distance that light travels in one year . Since light travels at a speed of approximately 186,282 miles per second (299,792,458 meters per second), a light year is a significant distance — about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion km) . Please check out our distance calculator to understand more about this topic.

The concept of a light year is important for understanding the distances involved in space exploration. Since the universe is so vast, it's often difficult to conceptualize the distances involved in astronomical measurements. However, by using a light year as a unit of measurement, scientists and astronomers can more easily compare distances between objects in space.

As the light year is a unit of measure for the distance light can travel in a year , this concept can help us to calculate the distance that light can travel in a certain time period. Hence, let's have a look at the following example:

• Source: Light
• Speed of light: 299,792,458 m/s
• Time traveled: 2 years

You can perform the calculation in three steps:

Determine the speed of light.

The speed of light is the fastest speed in the universe, and it is always a constant in a vacuum. Hence, the speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s , which is 9.46×10¹² km/year .

Compute the time that the light has traveled.

The subsequent stage involves determining the duration of time taken by the light to travel. Since we are interested in light years, we will be measuring the time in years.

To facilitate this calculation, you may use our time lapse calculator . In this specific scenario, the light has traveled for a duration of 2 years.

Calculate the distance that the light has traveled.

The final step is to calculate the total distance that the light has traveled within the time . You can calculate this answer using the speed of light formula:

distance = speed of light × time

Thus, the distance that the light can travel in 100 seconds is 9.46×10¹² km/year × 2 years = 1.892×10¹³ km

How do I calculate the distance that light travels?

You can calculate the distance light travels in three steps:

Determine the light speed .

Determine the time the light has traveled.

Apply the light year formula :

distance = light speed × time

How far light can travel in 1 second?

The light can travel 186,282 miles, or 299,792,458 meters, in 1 second . That means light can go around the Earth just over 7 times in 1 second.

Why is the concept of a light year important in astronomy?

The concept of a light year is important in astronomy because it helps scientists and astronomers more easily compare distances between objects in space and understand the vastness of the universe .

Can light years be used to measure time?

No , despite the name, you cannot use light years to measure time. They only measure distance .

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The speed of light is torturously slow, and these 3 simple animations by a scientist at NASA prove it

• The speed of light in a vacuum is about 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).
• A scientist at NASA animated how long it takes light to travel around Earth, as well as between the planet, its moon, and Mars.
• The physics animations show just how fast (and slow) the speed limit of the universe can be.

A series of new animations by a NASA scientist show just how zippy — and also how torturously slow — the speed of light can be.

Light speed is the fastest that any material object can travel through space. That is, of course, barring the existence of theoretical shortcuts in the fabric of space called wormholes (and the ability to go through them without being destroyed).

In a perfectly empty vacuum, a particle of light, which is called a photon, can travel 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second), or about 670.6 million mph (1.079 billion kilometers per hour).

This is incredibly fast. However, light speed can be frustratingly slow if you're trying to communicate with or reach other planets, especially any worlds beyond our solar system.

Read more : Astronomers found a 'cold super-Earth' less than 6 light-years away — and it may be the first rocky planet we'll photograph beyond the solar system

To depict the speed limit of the cosmos in a way anyone could understand, James O'Donoghue , a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, took it upon himself to animate it.

"My animations were made to show as instantly as possible the whole context of what I'm trying to convey," O'Donoghue told Business Insider via Twitter . "When I revised for my exams, I used to draw complex concepts out by hand just to truly understand, so that's what I'm doing here."

O'Donoghue said he only recently learned how to create these animations — his first were for a NASA news release about Saturn's vanishing rings . After that, he moved on to animating other difficult-to-grasp space concepts, including a video illustrating the rotation speeds and sizes of the planets. He said that one "garnered millions of views" when he posted it on Twitter .

O'Donoghue's latest effort looks at three different light-speed scenarios to convey how fast (and how painfully slow) photons can be.

How fast light travels relative to Earth

One of O'Donoghue's first animations shows how fast light moves in relation to Earth.

Earth is 24,901 miles around at its center. If our world had no atmosphere (air refracts and slows down light a little bit), a photon skimming along its surface could lap the equator nearly 7.5 times every second.

In this depiction , the speed of light seems pretty fast — though the movie also shows how finite it is.

How fast light travels between Earth and the moon

A second animation by O'Donoghue takes a big step back from Earth to include the moon.

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On average, there is about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) of distance between our planet and its large natural satellite.

This means all moonlight we see is 1.255 seconds old, and a round-trip between the Earth and moon at light speed takes about 2.51 seconds.

This timing is growing every day, however, as the moon is drifting farther from Earth at a rate of about 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) per year. (The moon is constantly sapping Earth's rotational energy via ocean tides , boosting its orbit to a greater and greater distance.)

How fast light travels between Earth and Mars

O'Donoghue's third speed-of-light animation illustrates the challenge that many planetary scientists deal with on a daily basis.

When NASA tries to talk to or download data from a spacecraft, such as the InSight probe on Mars , it can do so only at the speed of light. This is much too slow to operate a spacecraft in "live mode" as you would a remote-controlled car. So, commands must be carefully thought out, prepackaged, and aimed at the precise location in space at the precise time so that they don't miss their target.

Read more : NASA can hear the 'haunting' sound of dust devils tearing across Mars with its new $830 million lander

The fastest a conversation could ever happen between Earth and Mars is when the planets are at their nearest point to one another, an event called closest approach that happens once roughly every two years. On average, that best-case-scenario distance is about 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers).

As that 60-second clip of O'Donoghue's full movie on YouTube shows, light takes 3 minutes 2 seconds to travel between Earth and Mars at closest approach. That's six minutes and four seconds for a light-speed round-trip.

But on average, Mars is about 158 million miles from Earth — so the average round-trip communication takes about 28 minutes and 12 seconds.

The speed of light gets more depressing the farther you go

The hurdle of light's finite speed gets even more challenging for spacecraft such as New Horizons, which is now more than 4 billion miles from Earth , and the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, each of which have reached the space between stars .

The situation gets downright depressing when you start looking outside the solar system. The closest-known exoplanet , called Proxima b, is about 4.2 light-years away from us (a distance of about 24.7 trillion miles or 39.7 trillion kilometers).

However, the fastest any spacecraft has ever gone is NASA's Parker Solar Probe at about 213,200 mph ; at that speed, it'd take 13,211 years to reach Proxima b.

A Russian-American billionaire's Breakthrough Starshot project envisions a way to address this speed problem. The multidecade plan is to build and fly tiny "nanocraft" past such exoplanets via ultrapowerful laser blasts , ideally at a planned cruise velocity of 20% of the speed of light. Yet the entire concept is still theoretical, may end up not working, and would operate at a fraction of light-speed.

Space is impossibly vast. Although the universe is about 13.77 billion years old, its edge is about 45.34 billion light-years away in any direction and is increasing due to expansion .

That's far too big to illustrate in a simple animation. One illustration comes close, though: this image created by musician Pablo Carlos Budassi , which combines logarithmic maps of the universe from Princeton and images from NASA to capture it all in one picture.

This story has been updated.

Watch: What humans will look like on Mars

• Main content

What is a light-year?

Light-years make measuring astronomical distances much more manageable.

How far is a light-year?

Why use light-years, alternatives to light-years.

A light-year is a measurement of distance and not time (as the name might imply). A light-year is the distance a beam of light travels in a single Earth year, which equates to approximately 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers). 

On the scale of the universe , measuring distances in miles or kilometers is cumbersome given the exceedingly large numbers being discussed. It is much simpler for astronomers to measure the distances of stars from us in the time it takes for light to travel that expanse. For example, the nearest star to our sun , Proxima Centauri , is 4.2 light-years away, meaning the light we see from the star takes a little over four years to reach us. 

The speed of light is constant throughout the universe and is known to high precision. In a vacuum, light travels at 670,616,629 mph (1,079,252,849 km/h). To find the distance of a light-year, you multiply this speed by the number of hours in a year (8,766). The result: One light-year equals 5,878,625,370,000 miles (9.5 trillion km). At first glance, this may seem like an extreme distance, but the enormous scale of the universe dwarfs this length. One estimate puts the diameter of the known universe at 28 billion light-years in diameter .

Measuring in miles or kilometers at an astronomical scale is impractical given the scale of figures being used. Starting in our cosmic neighborhood, the closest star-forming region to us, the Orion Nebula , is a short 7,861,000,000,000,000 miles away, or expressed in light-years, 1,300 light-years away. The center of our galaxy is about 27,000 light-years away. The nearest spiral galaxy to ours, the Andromeda galaxy , is 2.5 million light-years away. Some of the most distant galaxies we can see are billions of light-years from us. The galaxy GN-z11 is thought to be the farthest detectable galaxy from Earth at 13.4 billion light-years away.

Like degrees, the light-year can also be broken down into smaller units of light-hours, light-minutes or light-seconds. For instance, the sun is more than 8 light-minutes from Earth, while the moon is just over a light-second away. Scientists use these terms when talking about communications with deep-space satellites or rovers. Because of the finite speed of light, it can take more than 20 minutes to send a signal to the Curiosity rover on Mars .

Measuring in light-years also allows astronomers to determine how far back in time they are viewing. Because light takes time to travel to our eyes, everything we view in the night sky has already happened. In other words, when you observe something 1 light-year away, you see it as it appeared exactly one year ago. We see the Andromeda galaxy as it appeared 2.5 million years ago. The most distant object we can see, the cosmic microwave background , is also our oldest view of the universe, occurring just after the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago.

Astronomers also use parsecs as an alternative to the light-year. Short for parallax-second, a parsec comes from the use of triangulation to determine the distance of stars. To be more specific, it is the distance to a star whose apparent position shifts by 1 arcsecond (1/3,600 of a degree) in the sky after Earth orbits halfway around the sun. One arcsecond is equal to 3.26 light-years.

Whether it's light-years or parsecs, astronomers will continue to use both to measure distances in our expansive and grand universe. 

Additional resources: 

• Watch astronomer Paul Sutter's " We Don't Planet" Episode 9: The Cosmic Distance Ladder . 
• Learn more about how astronomers measure the universe , from the International Astronomical Union.
• Watch " Powers of Ten" (1977) , which gives perspective on the size of the universe.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

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Jonathan is the Editor of All About History magazine. He has a degree in History from the University of Leeds. He has previously worked as editor of video game magazines games™ and X-ONE and tech magazines iCreate and Apps. He is currently based in Bournemouth, UK.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is a light-year.

Light-year is the distance light travels in one year. Light zips through interstellar space at 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second and 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers) per year.

We use light-time to measure the vast distances of space.

It’s the distance that light travels in a specific period of time. Also: LIGHT IS FAST, nothing travels faster than light.

How far can light travel in one minute? 11,160,000 miles. It takes 43.2 minutes for sunlight to reach Jupiter, about 484 million miles away. Light is fast, but the distances are vast . In an hour, light can travel 671 million miles.

Earth is about eight light minutes from the Sun. A trip at light-speed to the very edge of our solar system – the farthest reaches of the Oort Cloud, a collection of dormant comets way, way out there – would take about 1.87 years. Keep going to Proxima Centauri, our nearest neighboring star, and plan on arriving in 4.25 years at light speed.

When we talk about the enormity of the cosmos, it’s easy to toss out big numbers – but far more difficult to wrap our minds around just how large, how far, and how numerous celestial bodies really are.

To get a better sense, for instance, of the true distances to exoplanets – planets around other stars – we might start with the theater in which we find them, the Milky Way galaxy

Our galaxy is a gravitationally bound collection of stars, swirling in a spiral through space. Based on the deepest images obtained so far, it’s one of about 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. Groups of them are bound into clusters of galaxies, and these into superclusters; the superclusters are arranged in immense sheets stretching across the universe, interspersed with dark voids and lending the whole a kind of spiderweb structure. Our galaxy probably contains 100 to 400 billion stars, and is about 100,000 light-years across. That sounds huge, and it is, at least until we start comparing it to other galaxies. Our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, for example, is some 220,000 light-years wide. Another galaxy, IC 1101, spans as much as 4 million light-years.

Based on observations by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, we can confidently predict that every star you see in the sky probably hosts at least one planet. Realistically, we’re most likely talking about multi-planet systems rather than just single planets. In our galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars, this pushes the number of planets potentially into the trillions. Confirmed exoplanet detections (made by Kepler and other telescopes, both in space and on the ground) now come to more than 4,000 – and that’s from looking at only tiny slices of our galaxy. Many of these are small, rocky worlds that might be at the right temperature for liquid water to pool on their surfaces.

The nearest-known exoplanet is a small, probably rocky planet orbiting Proxima Centauri – the next star over from Earth. A little more than four light-years away, or 24 trillion miles. If an airline offered a flight there by jet, it would take 5 million years. Not much is known about this world; its close orbit and the periodic flaring of its star lower its chances of being habitable.

The TRAPPIST-1 system is seven planets, all roughly in Earth’s size range, orbiting a red dwarf star about 40 light-years away. They are very likely rocky, with four in the “habitable zone” – the orbital distance allowing potential liquid water on the surface. And computer modeling shows some have a good chance of being watery – or icy – worlds. In the next few years, we might learn whether they have atmospheres or oceans, or even signs of habitability.

One of the most distant exoplanets known to us in the Milky Way is Kepler-443b. Traveling at light speed, it would take 3,000 years to get there. Or 28 billion years, going 60 mph.

Explore Alien Worlds

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What Is a Light-Year?

An image of distant galaxies captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, RELICS; Acknowledgment: D. Coe et al.

For most space objects, we use light-years to describe their distance. A light-year is the distance light travels in one Earth year. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion km). That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it!

Looking Back in Time

When we use powerful telescopes to look at distant objects in space, we are actually looking back in time. How can this be?

Light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles (or 300,000 km) per second. This seems really fast, but objects in space are so far away that it takes a lot of time for their light to reach us. The farther an object is, the farther in the past we see it.

Our Sun is the closest star to us. It is about 93 million miles away. So, the Sun's light takes about 8.3 minutes to reach us. This means that we always see the Sun as it was about 8.3 minutes ago.

The next closest star to us is about 4.3 light-years away. So, when we see this star today, we’re actually seeing it as it was 4.3 years ago. All of the other stars we can see with our eyes are farther, some even thousands of light-years away.

Stars are found in large groups called galaxies . A galaxy can have millions or billions of stars. The nearest large galaxy to us, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light-years away. So, we see Andromeda as it was 2.5 million years in the past. The universe is filled with billions of galaxies, all farther away than this. Some of these galaxies are much farther away.

An image of the Andromeda galaxy, as seen by NASA's GALEX observatory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 2016, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope looked at the farthest galaxy ever seen, called GN-z11. It is 13.4 billion light-years away, so today we can see it as it was 13.4 billion years ago. That is only 400 million years after the big bang . It is one of the first galaxies ever formed in the universe.

Learning about the very first galaxies that formed after the big bang, like this one, helps us understand what the early universe was like.

This picture shows hundreds of very old and distant galaxies. The oldest one found so far in GN-z11 (shown in the close up image). The image is a bit blurry because this galaxy is so far away. Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Oesch (Yale University), G. Brammer (STScI), P. van Dokkum (Yale University), and G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz)

More to explore

What Is a Galaxy?

How Far Away Is the Moon?

What Is a Nebula?

If you liked this, you may like:

 Math and Physics Calculators

Please enter distance or time, the other value will be calculated. One year is counted as 31557600 seconds (365 1/4 days). Examples: the average distance of the moon from earth is 384400 kilometers. The light takes just under 1.3 seconds to get there. For one centimeter, light takes 3.3e-11 seconds. These are 0.000000000033 seconds (first digit ≠0 at the 11. decimal place).

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Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

If the James Webb telescope was 10 times more powerful, could we see the beginning of time? - Sam H., age 12, Prosper, Texas

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever built . Planning for JWST began over 25 years ago, and construction efforts spanned over a decade. It was launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021, and within a month arrived at its final destination: 930,000 miles away from Earth. Its location in space allows it a relatively unobstructed view of the universe .

The telescope design was a global effort , led by NASA, and intended to push the boundaries of astronomical observation with revolutionary engineering. Its mirror is massive – about 21 feet (6.5 meters) in diameter. That’s nearly three times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in 1990 and is still working today.

It’s a telescope’s mirror that allows it to collect light. JWST’s is so big that it can “see” the faintest and farthest galaxies and stars in the universe. Its state-of-the-art instruments can reveal information about the composition, temperature and motion of these distant cosmic objects.

As an astrophysicist , I’m continually looking back in time to see what stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes looked like when their light began its journey toward Earth, and I’m using that information to better understand their growth and evolution. For me, and for thousands of space scientists, the James Webb Space Telescope is a window to that unknown universe.

Just how far back can JWST peer into the cosmos and into the past? About 13.5 billion years.

Time travel

A telescope does not show stars, galaxies and exoplanets as they are right now. Instead, astronomers are catching a glimpse of how they were in the past . It takes time for light to travel across space and reach our telescopes. In essence, that means a look into space is also a trip back in time.

This is even true for objects that are quite close to us. The light you see from the Sun left it about 8 minutes, 20 seconds earlier. That’s how long it takes for the Sun’s light to travel to Earth .

You can easily do the math on this. All light – whether sunlight, a flashlight or a light bulb in your house – travels at 186,000 miles (almost 300,000 kilometers) per second . That’s just over 11 million miles (about 18 million kilometers) per minute. The Sun is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth. That comes out to about 8 minutes, 20 seconds.

But the farther away something is, the longer its light takes to reach us. That’s why the light we see from Proxima Centauri , the closest star to us aside from our Sun, is 4 years old; that is, it’s about 25 trillion miles (approximately 40 trillion kilometers) away from Earth, so that light takes just over four years to reach us. Or, as scientists like to say, four light years .

Most recently, JWST observed Earendel, one of the farthest stars ever detected . The light that JWST sees from Earendel is about 12.9 billion years old.

The James Webb Space Telescope is looking much farther back in time than previously possible with other telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope . For example, although Hubble can see objects 60,000 times fainter than the human eye is able, the JWST can see objects almost nine times fainter than even Hubble can .

The Big Bang

But is it possible to see back to the beginning of time?

The Big Bang is a term used to define the beginning of our universe as we know it. Scientists believe it occurred about 13.8 billion years ago . It is the most widely accepted theory among physicists to explain the history of our universe.

The name is a bit misleading, however, because it suggests that some sort of explosion, like fireworks, created the universe. The Big Bang more closely represents the appearance of rapidly expanding space everywhere in the universe. The environment immediately after the Big Bang was similar to a cosmic fog that covered the universe, making it hard for light to travel beyond it. Eventually, galaxies, stars and planets started to grow.

That’s why this era in the universe is called the “cosmic dark ages.” As the universe continued to expand, the cosmic fog began to rise , and light was eventually able to travel freely through space. In fact, a few satellites have observed the light left by the Big Bang, about 380,000 years after it occurred. These telescopes were built to detect the splotchy leftover glow from the Big Bang , whose light can be tracked in the microwave band.

However, even 380,000 years after the Big Bang, there were no stars and galaxies. The universe was still a very dark place. The cosmic dark ages wouldn’t end until a few hundred million years later, when the first stars and galaxies began to form.

The James Webb Space Telescope was not designed to observe as far back as the Big Bang, but instead to see the period when the first objects in the universe began to form and emit light. Before this time period, there is little light for the James Webb Space Telescope to observe, given the conditions of the early universe and the lack of galaxies and stars.

Peering back to the time period close to the Big Bang is not simply a matter of having a larger mirror – astronomers have already done it using other satellites that observe microwave emission from very soon after the Big Bang . So, the James Webb Space Telescope observing the universe a few hundred million years after the Big Bang isn’t a limitation of the telescope. Rather, that’s actually the telescope’s mission. It’s a reflection of where in the universe we expect the first light from stars and galaxies to emerge.

By studying ancient galaxies, scientists hope to understand the unique conditions of the early universe and gain insight into the processes that helped them flourish. That includes the evolution of supermassive black holes, the life cycle of stars, and what exoplanets – worlds beyond our solar system – are made of.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected] . Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation , a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Adi Foord , University of Maryland, Baltimore County

The James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready to do science – and it’s seeing the universe more clearly than even its own engineers hoped for

James Webb Space Telescope: An astronomer on the team explains how to send a giant telescope to space – and why

To search for alien life, astronomers will look for clues in the atmospheres of distant planets – and the James Webb Space Telescope just proved it’s possible to do so

Adi Foord does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Take It From Flight Attendants — This Spacious Underseat Carry-on Is ‘a Must’ for Traveling Light

Travelers are shocked by how much it can fit and still slide under an airplane seat.

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

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As the trusted luggage brand of airline workers, Travelpro excels in pretty much every category, from size to design, durability to customer service. The one catch is that the quality of the bags often comes at a high price. Right now, though, you can get a good deal on the Travelpro Maxlite 5 Underseat Carry-on that flight attendants call the “ perfect size .” 

This roomy bag that can fit four days’ worth of clothing with room to spare while still slipping under the airplane seat in front of you is from the brand’s classic Maxlite 5 collection. It’s one of the top-rated travel totes at Amazon, and you can snag it now for just $75, 25 percent off the original price.

Travelpro Maxlite 5 Underseat Carry-on

One of the major problems you can run into with an underseat carry-on is that it doesn’t actually fit under the seat. And if it doesn’t fit under the seat, you don’t get easy access to the stuff inside it on your flight, and worse, you might even be charged extra baggage fees. You don’t have to worry about all that with Travelpro, whose sophisticated designs are made and used by real travel professionals. 

The Travelpro Maxlite 5 Underseat Carry-on measures 11 inches by 18 inches by 8 inches. It’s compact enough to slide under most seats but carries a surprising amount for its size. One reviewer said they fit two pairs of jeans, eight XL shirts, nine boxer briefs, running shorts, a quart-size bag of liquids, and some tech accessories just in the main compartment and side pocket. They reported no bulging, and the front pockets were still empty.

The outside of the bag has the brand’s DuraGard coating that repels water and resists staining. Inside, it’s lined with another water-resistant layer to keep liquids from seeping in or spilling out.

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The carry-on can be carried by the handles or detachable shoulder strap, or you can stack it on your suitcase with a rear strap that secures to an extension handle. It comes in two shades of pink, azure blue, slate green, and black, with the pink style being the most discounted. Prices range from $75 to $90 depending on color, compared to the original price of $100. 

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Woman shoots interstate drivers, says God told her to because of the eclipse, Florida police say

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A woman checked out of a Florida hotel and told staff that she was going on a God-directed shooting spree because of the solar eclipse , then shot two drivers on Interstate 10 before being arrested and charged with attempted murder Monday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Taylon Nichelle Celestine, 22, of Georgia, entered the highway 115 miles (180 kilometers) from the Alabama border in the Florida Panhandle and headed west. Within 5 miles (8 kilometers), she fired into a passing car several times, spraying auto glass and grazing the driver in the arm, the department said in a statement.

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Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

If the James Webb telescope was 10 times more powerful, could we see the beginning of time? - Sam H., age 12, Prosper, Texas

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever built . Planning for JWST began over 25 years ago, and construction efforts spanned over a decade. It was launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021, and within a month arrived at its final destination: 930,000 miles away from Earth. Its location in space allows it a relatively unobstructed view of the universe .

The telescope design was a global effort , led by NASA and intended to push the boundaries of astronomical observation with revolutionary engineering. Its mirror is massive – about 21 feet (6.5 meters) in diameter. That’s nearly three times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in 1990 and is still working today.

It’s a telescope’s mirror that allows it to collect light. JWST’s is so big that it can “see” the faintest and farthest galaxies and stars in the universe. Its state-of-the-art instruments can reveal information about the composition, temperature and motion of these distant cosmic objects.

As an astrophysicist , I’m continually looking back in time to see what stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes looked like when their light began its journey toward Earth, and I’m using that information to better understand their growth and evolution. For me, and for thousands of space scientists, the James Webb Space Telescope is a window to that unknown universe.

Just how far back can JWST peer into the cosmos and into the past? About 13.5 billion years.

Time travel

A telescope does not show stars, galaxies and exoplanets as they are right now. Instead, astronomers are catching a glimpse of how they were in the past . It takes time for light to travel across space and reach our telescopes. In essence, that means a look into space is also a trip back in time.

This is even true for objects that are quite close to us. The light you see from the Sun left it about 8 minutes, 20 seconds earlier. That’s how long it takes for the Sun’s light to travel to Earth .

You can easily do the math on this. All light – whether sunlight, a flashlight or a light bulb in your house – travels at 186,000 miles (almost 300,000 kilometers) per second . That’s just over 11 million miles (about 18 million kilometers) per minute. The Sun is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth. That comes out to about 8 minutes, 20 seconds.

But the farther away something is, the longer its light takes to reach us. That’s why the light we see from Proxima Centauri , the closest star to us aside from our Sun, is 4 years old; that is, it’s about 25 trillion miles (approximately 40 trillion kilometers) away from Earth, so that light takes just over four years to reach us. Or, as scientists like to say, four light years .

Most recently, JWST observed Earendel, one of the farthest stars ever detected . The light that JWST sees from Earendel is about 12.9 billion years old.

The James Webb Space Telescope is looking much farther back in time than previously possible with other telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope . For example, although Hubble can see objects 60,000 times fainter than the human eye is able, the JWST can see objects almost nine times fainter than even Hubble can .

The Big Bang

But is it possible to see back to the beginning of time?

The Big Bang is a term used to define the beginning of our universe as we know it. Scientists believe it occurred about 13.8 billion years ago . It is the most widely accepted theory among physicists to explain the history of our universe.

The name is a bit misleading, however, because it suggests that some sort of explosion, like fireworks, created the universe. The Big Bang more closely represents the appearance of rapidly expanding space everywhere in the universe. The environment immediately after the Big Bang was similar to a cosmic fog that covered the universe, making it hard for light to travel beyond it. Eventually, galaxies, stars and planets started to grow.

That’s why this era in the universe is called the “cosmic dark ages.” As the universe continued to expand, the cosmic fog began to rise , and light was eventually able to travel freely through space. In fact, a few satellites have observed the light left by the Big Bang, about 380,000 years after it occurred. These telescopes were built to detect the splotchy leftover glow from the Big Bang , whose light can be tracked in the microwave band.

However, even 380,000 years after the Big Bang, there were no stars and galaxies. The universe was still a very dark place. The cosmic dark ages wouldn’t end until a few hundred million years later, when the first stars and galaxies began to form.

The James Webb Space Telescope was not designed to observe as far back as the Big Bang, but instead to see the period when the first objects in the universe began to form and emit light. Before this time period, there is little light for the James Webb Space Telescope to observe, given the conditions of the early universe and the lack of galaxies and stars.

Peering back to the time period close to the Big Bang is not simply a matter of having a larger mirror – astronomers have already done it using other satellites that observe microwave emission from very soon after the Big Bang . So, the James Webb Space Telescope observing the universe a few hundred million years after the Big Bang isn’t a limitation of the telescope. Rather, that’s actually the telescope’s mission. It’s a reflection of where in the universe we expect the first light from stars and galaxies to emerge.

By studying ancient galaxies, scientists hope to understand the unique conditions of the early universe and gain insight into the processes that helped them flourish. That includes the evolution of supermassive black holes, the life cycle of stars, and what exoplanets – worlds beyond our solar system – are made of.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected] . Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

• The James Webb Space Telescope is finally ready to do science – and it’s seeing the universe more clearly than even its own engineers hoped for
• James Webb Space Telescope: An astronomer on the team explains how to send a giant telescope to space – and why

Adi Foord does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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The Best Crossbody Bags For Travel, Built With Storage And Style

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Roomy enough to carry everyday essentials, the best crossbody bags for travel give you the freedom to explore without having to lug your suitcase around. We researched the best crossbody bags for travel that offer both storage and style and selected the MZ Wallace Small Sutton Deluxe as our top pick. We also found other great options for different travel styles, like a spacious crescent bag for beach trips and a sleek sling bag for organization.

The best crossbody bags for travel give you the freedom to explore without having to lug your ... [+] suitcase around.

A solid crossbody bag is versatile and provides convenient hands-free storage for every situation. This 4-in-1 leather bag from Lo & Sons stylishly transitions from day to night, while Lululemon’s popular Everywhere Belt Bag can be worn on the hip or across the body. Meanwhile, active travelers will get great use out of the Nomatic Navigator Sling , which features a water bottle holder and a stabilizer strap. Below, the best crossbody bags for travel in a variety of price points, styles and materials.

• Best Crossbody Bag For Travel Overall: MZ Wallace Small Sutton Deluxe
• Best Affordable Crossbody Bag For Travel: Travelon Anti-Theft Classic Mini Shoulder Bag
• Best Crossbody Bag For Organization: Aer Day Sling 3
• Best Crossbody Bag For Parents: Hobo Sheila Large Satchel
• Best Crossbody Bag For Beach Trips: Baggu Large Nylon Crescent Bag
• Best Crossbody Bag For Active Trips: Nomatic Navigator Sling 6L
• Most Versatile Crossbody Bag For Travel: Lo & Sons Waverley 2 in Nappa Leather
• Best Belt Bag For Travel: Lululemon Everywhere Belt Bag 1 L
• Best Crossbody Bag For Men: Cotopaxi Coso 2L Hip Pack
• Best Leather Crossbody Bag For Travel: Quince Italian Leather Triple Compartment Crossbody

Best Crossbody Bag For Travel Overall

Lightweight, stylish storage, mz wallace small sutton deluxe.

Dimensions: 9.8 × 5.5 × 10.20 inches | Weight: 1.08 pounds | Materials: Recycled oxford (polyester, nylon), leather

With a handy key ring strap and five interior pockets, this versatile bag is perfect for staying organized during travel. It can be worn as a crossbody or top handle tote and its water-resistant oxford fabric won’t weigh you down on your journey. There’s an easy-to-adjust nylon strap for a customized fit and the detachable interior pouch is big enough to hold a pair of shoes, plus the ample pockets provide plenty of space for your phone, keys, tickets and more. It weighs only a pound but can fit a surprising amount of items, plus its plush fabric folds down for packing.

Best Affordable Crossbody Bag For Travel

Security features plus many pockets, travelon anti-theft classic mini shoulder bag.

Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.5 x 2.25 inches | Weight: 0.7 pounds | Materials: Polyester, nylon

Travelon’s Anti-Theft Classic Mini Shoulder Bag packs an impressive punch for being so small. Its six pockets keep everything where you need it—including an RFID-blocking passport and card interior organizer—while a tethered key caddy with an LED light eliminates that dreaded “can’t-find-it-in-my-bag” feeling. The 5-Point Anti-Theft security system protects against theft threats with slash-resistant fabric, lockable straps and secure zipper pulls. Not only will you feel safe wearing this bag, but thanks to its 13 colors and prints, you’ll also look stylish anywhere your trip may take you.

Best Crossbody Bag For Organization

A compact sling bag with room to spare, aer day sling 3.

Dimensions: 11.5 x 6 x 3 inches | Weight: 0.8 pounds | Materials: Cordura nylon

With a ballistic nylon exterior and a unique design that zips open for easy access, Aer’s Day Sling 3 is one of the more durable crossbody options out there. It has a 3L capacity that fits a surprising amount of items and its 8 pockets ensure everything stays in its place. There are multiple loops for strapping onto your luggage or storage and a handy front pocket with a key leash and cool security features like a secret back pocket. There’s also a sneaky Fidlock clasp that makes it harder for a pickpocket to snatch your bag.

Best Crossbody Bag For Parents

Extra space and storage for the whole family, hobo sheila large satchel.

Dimensions: 13.5 x 14 x 5.5 inches | Weight: 1.6 pounds | Materials: Raffia, leather

For parents or travelers who need to tote a lot of stuff on the go, a larger bag might be in order. Hobo’s Sheila Large Satchel offers nice organizational features and high style points. It’s made of a lightweight woven raffia with leather trim for added durability, plus its six interior pockets, key lanyard and accessible side exterior pocket are perfect for storing smaller items you may need throughout the day. Its main compartment is quite roomy, easily fitting a laptop, kid’s tablet, diaper wipes, snacks, toys, a backup outfit and more. The flexibility of its 3-in-1 styling really stands out—the adjustable strap can be worn as a crossbody, shortened for a shoulder bag or simply removed to transform into a classy top handle bag for a night out after the kiddos go to sleep.

Best Crossbody Bag For Beach Trips

Large and easy to wear for sandy days in the sun.

Urban Outfitters

Baggu Large Nylon Crescent Bag

Dimensions: 10.5 × 19.5 × 5.25 inches | Weight: N/A (not listed) | Materials: 100% recycled nylon

A beach bag calls for some pretty specific features: it needs to be durable and water-resistant, it should be big enough to hold bulky towels and ideally, it has a simple shape so sand won’t get lodged in the nooks and crannies. After much research, the Baggu Crescent Bag fits the bill. Its adjustable strap can be worn across the chest or as a tighter-fitting shoulder bag, the large size is roomy enough for a couple towels and a change of clothes and the zippered interior pocket keeps your wallet and keys secure. The quick-drying ripstop nylon is not only recycled, it’s also durable enough to withstand the windiest—and wettest—of beach days. Consider adding a few of Baggu’s fun printed flat pouches for additional organization.

Best Crossbody Bag For Active Trips

A durable sling with no detail spared, nomatic navigator sling 6l.

Dimensions: 13.5 x 9 x 4 inches | Weight: 1.3 pounds | Materials: 80% nylon, 20% polyester

Whether you’re hiking, biking or riding the metro, the Navigator Sling from Nomatic offers durability, storage and some impressive features. There’s a water bottle holder that zips away when not in use, a molded EVA back panel for wearable comfort and breathability, a tamper-resistant zipper and tech features like built-in tablet storage, an RFID-blocking pocket for your cards and a cord-pass through for charging your devices in different pockets. If you’re running or moving around a lot, there’s also a stabilizer strap that clips on to keep the sling even more secure to your body. Unlike some sling styles, this bag has multiple zippered storage compartments, the main one opening extra wide for easier access.

Most Versatile Crossbody Bag For Travel

Four ways to wear it.

Lo & Sons

Lo & Sons Waverley 2 in Nappa Leather

Dimensions: 5.6 x 8 x 2 inches | Weight: 0.6 pounds | Materials: Nappa, Saffiano or cactus leather

When you’re on the go, sometimes the last thing you want is to ruin the flow of the day by making a pit stop at the hotel to change out a bag before dinner. We like the Lo & Sons Waverley for its inventive versatility that adapts to your needs. The minimal leather design has an adjustable strap that can be worn 4 ways: as a hands-free belt bag, a longer crossbody, a casual shoulder bag or an elevated clutch with (or without) a wristlet. The main compartment is large enough for the essentials and the zippered inner pocket keeps smaller items secure no matter where your day—or night—takes you.

Best Belt Bag For Travel

Hands-free storage in a slim profile, lululemon everywhere belt bag 1 l.

Dimensions: 7.5 x 2 x 5 inches | Weight: N/A (not listed) | Materials: Nylon, recycled polyester

Over 22,500 reviewers agree: the Lululemon Everywhere Belt Bag is sleek, lightweight and versatile enough to be worn just about anywhere your travels take you. It has a water-repellant nylon exterior and one main compartment, three mesh interior pockets for added organization and a back zipper for your phone or cards. Its adjustable strap can tighten for comfortable wearing around your waist or it can be extended as a crossbody sling. With a 1L capacity, this bag is definitely on the smaller side, so you might want to consider their larger 2L size if you need more space.

Best Crossbody Bag For Men

Rugged looks for when you're on the go, cotopaxi coso 2l hip pack.

Dimensions: 11 x 7 x 3 inches | Weight: 10 ounces | Materials: Recycled nylon, recycled polyester

This easy-wearing hip pack from Cotopaxi combines an urban rugged look with smart storage solutions. The recycled nylon exterior is durable with a matte TPU coating, making it water-resistant and easy to clean, while a fleece interior pocket stores your phone or other small devices without any scratch risk. There’s multiple grab handles for easy carrying, secure pockets for smaller items and in addition to the main zippered compartment, the exterior front flap pocket can store a rolled-up lightweight jacket when you get warm on the go. G-hooks on both sides can be adjusted for customized storage and it can be comfortably worn as a crossbody on the front or back, or around the waist as a belt bag.

Best Leather Crossbody Bag For Travel

Three storage sections in a minimal package, quince italian leather triple compartment crossbody.

Dimensions: 7.8 x 9.5 x 3 inches | Weight: 1.54 pounds | Materials: Leather

Quince’s smooth Italian leather crossbody might look simple from the outside, but there’s actually a lot of unexpected storage inside. The bag has three main compartments—two zippered sections flanking one open area that closes with snaps—plus three internal zippered pockets to take your organization a step further. It also comes with two detachable straps that allow for crossbody or wristlet wear. Quince is known for its fair prices and ethical manufacturing process, and if that’s not impressive enough, the brand also offers a generous 365-day return policy.

The Best Travel Accessories, Reviewed By Our Editors

The best wireless earbuds under $100 that offer style and function, why trust forbes vetted.

Our team at Forbes Vetted is comprised of seasoned editors, writers and researchers who not only love travel, but love to shop. We approach all of our travel product roundups with a discerning eye, focusing on quality, value and more, taking the time to assess products so you don’t have to. From the best luggage locks to the best carry-on backpacks , we spend countless hours researching, vetting and testing travel products to bring you the best of what’s on the market so you can make smart and informed shopping decisions for that next big trip or cruise . This story was written by contributor Becky Eaton , who regularly writes fashion, accessory and travel product guides for Forbes Vetted.

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