What is a micron?
A micron is one millionth of a meter, or 0.000001 meters. Its symbol is µm, the Greek letter mu followed by m.
'Micron' is the older name for the micrometer, and the SI dropped it in 1967. It survives on filter ratings anyway – a 5 micron filter catches particles down to about 5 micrometers.
What is a lightyear?
A lightyear is a unit of measurement used in astronomy to describe vast distances in space. It represents the distance that light travels in one year, which is approximately 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. The term "lightyear" is derived from the fact that light, which travels at a speed of about 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second), can cover an incredible distance in the span of a year.
Light has a finite speed, so a galaxy a billion lightyears away is seen as it was a billion years ago. That is how astronomers look back at the early universe – the farther the galaxy, the older the picture.