Convert Aln (aln) to Megaparsec (Mpc) instantly.
About these units
Aln (aln)
The aln was a traditional Swedish unit of length equal to roughly 59.4 cm, though its exact value varied slightly by region and period. It belongs to the broader family of "ell" measurements used across Europe, originally based on the length of a human forearm. The aln played a crucial role in Swedish commerce, especially in the textile industry, where cloth was measured by stretching it along standardized rods or boards marked in aln lengths. Because such goods were often woven locally and traded regionally, the aln helped regulate and unify commercial practices before the adoption of the metric system. Although obsolete today, the aln survives in historical texts, architectural references, and Scandinavian museum records. Understanding the aln helps scholars interpret pre-modern construction records, land measurements, and traditional clothing industries, revealing a great deal about everyday life in early Sweden.
Megaparsec (Mpc)
A megaparsec is equal to one million parsecs, making it one of the principal units for describing intergalactic distances and the scale of the observable universe. Astronomers use Mpc to measure the distances between galaxies, galaxy groups, and galaxy clusters, as well as to express the scale of cosmic structures like the cosmic web. Megaparsecs are also central to cosmology because the Hubble constant — which describes the rate of cosmic expansion — is measured in units of kilometers per second per megaparsec. Thus, the Mpc sits at the heart of research on dark energy, large-scale structure formation, and the Big Bang. While hardly intuitive for everyday understanding, the megaparsec offers unmatched practicality for professional astronomy. It simplifies equations and visualization of the universe at the grandest scales.