The Wild Journey of Photons From Sun to Space

But even before light starts its journey through space, it's already been traveling for thousands of years. That new ray of light has a long way to go just to reach the star's surface. For the photons, it's a wild ride, smashing into atoms of gas billions of times as they struggle to escape from inside the star. Photons are the source of light and heat, but they also cause something far more destructive, the solar wind. As they reach the surface, photons heat up the outer layers of the sun, sending it hurtling around the star, creating extreme turbulence and intense shock waves.