How old is the light from the sun?

Question

I recently watched a documentry on the sun and they said that sunlight can and usually is millions of years old before it finally makes it to earth. I know it takes about eight minutes for light to travel the distance from the sun but can it really be millions of years old?

Answer 1

It takes 8 minutes to get from the sun to the Earth, but up to a million years to get out of the sun. I read about the million years in an astronomy paper, but found it hard to believe, but there is some scientific justification behind it. The theory basically says most of the light is generated in the dense core, and the light takes longer to bounce out because of the densely packed nature, and can take up to a million years to finally get out. Some scientist actually calculated it.

Answer 2

Yes, on average, about a million years since the light was created in the sun's core. Because of the sun's extremely high density, the light bounces around inside the sun off of hydrogen and helium atoms, then finally breaks through to the surface where it takes about 8 minutes to get out to earth's orbit. Pretty cool, huh?

Answer 3

I think they meant that the light from stars that are millions of light-years away would be millions of years old (i.e. if a star is 2 million light years away, we see it the star here on Earth as it looked 2 million years ago)...but the light from our Sun is, as you said, only 8 minutes old since it only took 8 minutes to get here.

Answer 4

i heard it was 7, but whos counting. The light is generated as a by product of the nuclear fusion reaction in the sun, and light cant hang around, as soon as its made it shoots off at the speed of light, so i fail to see how its possible that light from our sun can be millions of years old by the time it gets here

Answer 5

The sun is about eight light-minutes away, so its light is about eight minutes old when it gets here. Maybe the documentary actually said starlight? Some stars are millions of light-years away, so their light would be millions of years old.

Answer 6

Light rays (photos) emanate from atoms in the sun's interior. It can take a long time for them to reach the sun's surface. Once they leave the surface and travel thru space to the earth - that trip only takes 8 minutes.

Answer 7

They're talking about the photon as it was created in the core of the sun is very old, and takes a long time to work its way to the surface.

Answer 8

The sunlight referred to in the documentary you watched must be in regard to the light from stars in other solar systems and galaxies. Remember, our sun is only one of billions.

Answer 9

8 minutes