why are there no perceived gaps between photons emitted from sources billions of miles away?

Question

if photons are discrete particles emitted from objects at trememdous distances why do we not perceive gaps between them after they have travelled so far. would they not become diffuse?

Answer 1

Why do you think there are no perceived "Gaps".

I assure you that any far field photo you have seen is a long time exposure created by the collection of photons over time.

If you mean the stars you see with your eyes, your eyes stop seeing flicker at about 20 Hz. That's why TV and movies work....additionally, you only see the bright stars, i.e., the ones without gaps.

As for the dimmer ones, we have a song about them.

"twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are"

Ya know what makes 'em twinkle? gaps
(well air dispersion) but if there were more photons the air caused distortions would be overwhelmed)

Answer 2

The notion of photons as discrete "particles" (and also that of light as a "wave", for that matter) is just a model to explain & predict the behaviour of light energy, it isn't necessarily 'reality'.

But to address your question as if this were not the case, we DO perceive diffusion in light that has travelled great distances when we treat it 'as though' it were waves...there is a wavelength shift in the light energy from distant stars which is usually called the "red shift", (one 'edge' of the spectrum moving slower than the other), and it is this that is used to measure how far away stars are.

Answer 3

The eye can only detect things from which the stream of photons seems continuous. If it did not seem continuous, it would not be visible to the naked eye. Some objects are so faint that you can actually count the photons as they reach the CCD on a telescope.

Answer 4

They travel that far because there is no mass and no friction.So photon that travels thousand of light years arrives at your eye just as strong as when it left.