The journey of a photon from the heart of the Sun to the Earth is an incredible tale of two vastly different journeys. It takes a photon up to 40,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to its surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to Earth. This dramatic difference in travel time is due to the contrasting environments the photon encounters.

sun_photon Within the Sun’s Core:

  • The core of the Sun is a chaotic, super-heated plasma where atoms are constantly colliding.
  • Photons, the particles of light, are generated in this intense environment.
  • Due to the dense plasma, photons constantly collide with other particles, taking a long and winding “random walk” to reach the surface.
  • This journey can take tens of thousands of years. Each collision changes the photon’s direction, making it a long and arduous process.

From the Sun’s Surface to Earth:

  • Once a photon finally escapes the Sun’s core and reaches the surface, its journey changes dramatically.
  • Now travelling through the vacuum of space, the photon can move unimpeded at the speed of light.
  • At this speed, it takes just eight minutes for the photon to cross the 150 million kilometres between the Sun and Earth.

The photon’s journey highlights the vast difference between the density of the Sun’s core and the emptiness of space. What takes a photon tens of thousands of years to navigate within the Sun takes mere minutes to cover in the vastness of space.

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