How long does it take a photon to travel from the center to the surface of the sun?

Answer 1

No one agrees on an exact answer yet. The article in my link discusses exactly your question.

Here's the first paragraph:

Asking how long photons take to migrate to the sun's surface can start a fight. Some solar physicists say 17,000 years, others 40,000, some 170,000, still others 1,000,000 years. It's a fairly tricky question, since the sun's core — where a photon starts — is a bad place to make much progress.

Answer 2

One million to two million years. The energy originates in the core and begins a drunkard's walk in which the initial gamma rays are transformed by absorption, kinetic energy is redistributed by scattering, ions passing each other emit photons of just about any wavelength, so the energy diffuses in increasing number of loci at the same time as it diffuses outward in radius. By the time the energy reaches the solar surface, it has a spectral distribution similar to a blackbody overlaid with a translucent convective photosphere that absorbs at certain wavelengths.

Answer 3

Actually, it can take years. The particles are so densely packed in the Sun's core that photons are constantly being absorbed and re-emitted.

In many cases, a nucleus will absorb one high-energy photon, and emit two or more lower-energy photons. This is how the Sun puts out such a broad spectrum of radiation; the thermonuclear fusion in the core produces gamma rays, which are absorbed and re-emitted as x-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, microwaves, radio waves, etc.

Answer 4

The real answer is that we don't know, it depends who you ask. Most would agree it takes a very long time. Beyond that....

Answer 5

Would you believe millions of years?

Answer 6

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Structure