Convert Nautical Mile (nmi) to Parsec (pc) instantly.
About these units
Nautical Mile (nmi)
The nautical mile is a unit designed specifically for navigation. Its definition—exactly 1,852 meters—originated from the idea that one nautical mile equals one minute of arc along Earth's meridian. This geometric relationship makes nautical miles incredibly convenient for charting and navigation because latitude coordinates are given in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Aviation and maritime industries use nautical miles exclusively for distance, and knots (nautical miles per hour) for speed. Because Earth's shape and size are fundamental to navigational calculations, using nautical miles avoids the complexities that would arise if statute miles or kilometers were used instead. The unit remains globally standardized and universally understood in professional navigation.
Parsec (pc)
A parsec is equal to 3.26 light years, or approximately 3.0857 × 10¹⁶ meters. It is defined based on the method of stellar parallax, the apparent shift in a star's position caused by Earth's orbit around the Sun. Specifically, a star at a distance of one parsec exhibits a parallax angle of one arcsecond (1/3600 of a degree). Because its definition emerges directly from geometric measurement techniques, the parsec became the standard astronomical unit for professional research. Parallax-based distances are foundational to the cosmic distance ladder — the sequence of methods by which astronomers measure distances from nearby stars to the farthest galaxies. The parsec is widely used in astrophysics because calculations involving gravitational dynamics, luminosity, or galactic structure often become more intuitive in parsecs than in light years. Although less familiar to the public, it is the preferred unit in scientific publications, planetary catalogs, and distance mapping of the Milky Way.