1. 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.