Question

How long does it take the sun's rays to reach the earth?

Answer 1

Hint: At the speed of light, sunlight travels. In order to reach our eyes, photons emitted from the Sun's surface need to travel across the vacuum of space. If the Sun had disappeared from the Universe suddenly, It would take a little more than 8 minutes to put on a sweater before you realized it was time.

Complete answer:
1.At a distance of approximately 150 million km, we orbit the Sun. At 300,000 kilometers/second, light is moving. Divide them and you're going to get 500 seconds, or 8 minutes, 20 seconds.
2.It's an average number here. Remember, the Earth follows an elliptical orbit, from 147 million to 152 million km, around the Sun. Sunlight only takes 490 seconds at its closest point to reach Earth. And then it takes 507 seconds for sunlight at the most distant point to make the journey.
3.But when you think about the journey light needs to make inside the Sun, the storey of light gets even more interesting.
4.You probably know that photons are produced inside the Sun's core through fusion reactions. They start off as gamma radiation and then in the radiative zone of the Sun are emitted and absorbed countless times, wandering around inside the massive star before they eventually reach the surface.

Note:
All of the frequencies of light travel in a straight line when light travels through space from the sun. However when light hits the atmosphere, the photons start to collide with molecules of gas. Many of these scattered photons fly toward the Earth, making it seem that the sky is shining.