2006-09-26 22:42:09 · 8 answers · asked by deeivy 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
To be honest, no one is really quite sure. There is some amount of speculation based on models, and the theories produce answers that range from 10,000 years to several million years.
The reason that heat and light take so long to travel from the sun's core to the photosphere is because the energy is absorbed by an atom, then re-radiated only to be absorbed by another atom and re-radiated again. The number of atoms are astronomical (please pardon the pun) and even when the photon of energy is radiated, it isn't always towards the photosphere. Sometimes it is back towards the core. So even at the speed of light, it takes a very very long time for a photon of energy to travel from atom to atom all the way to the surface.
2006-09-27 00:48:05 · answer #1 · answered by sparc77 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It takes well over 200,000 years for the heat from the core of the sun to reach the photosphere. From there it's few minutes to earth.
2006-09-26 23:57:08 · answer #2 · answered by Feckpot 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
About 4.
2006-09-26 22:43:16 · answer #3 · answered by Gay Muslim Pride!! 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋
i think of you will discover that warmth in itself isn't something which may be measured. in basic terms it somewhat is result on something else. through fact the solar is often extra or less a similar temperature there is not any way you will possibly ever be waiting to tell how long it took for the waste made from warmth, brought about by utilising the reaction in the middle, to attain the exterior layer. it is purely an impossible calculation.
2016-12-15 15:16:01 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A million years or so. That's how long it takes energy originally appearing as gamma radiation in the core to random walk its way to the photosphere.
2006-09-26 22:46:41 · answer #5 · answered by David S 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Dick Cheney
2006-09-26 22:44:54 · answer #6 · answered by R & B 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
hundreds of lightyears
2006-09-26 22:45:20 · answer #7 · answered by mccombspac 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
I don't know. Can you tell us?
2006-09-26 22:43:25 · answer #8 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋