stars are located light years apart from each other & light years ly are an astronomy unit used for measuring length / distance generally used for values between 1 and 27000000000 ->  light year is used to measure the distance between stars  the milky way is a kind of galaxy & a galaxy is made of stars ->  the milky way is made of stars  light year is used to measure the distance between stars & the milky way is made of stars -> light year can be used to measure the distance between the stars in milky way