How old is light from the Sun when it reaches Earth?

How old is the sunlight that falls onto your skin every day? It takes a photon of light 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the surface of the sun to Earth. However, that's not the whole story. Photons are created deep inside the Suns' core by a process called nuclear fusion. After that,
the photon begins a very difficult journey through dense matter in the radiation zone of the Sun, where it gets absorbed and scattered by other particles. Because of this, it takes photons about 171.000! years on average to reach the surface of the Sun. So the sunlight falling onto your skin right now may be created before the start of the last ice age. Isn't that incredible?!

Keep looking up!

Wido.

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[beeberbonberber]

Something about stars is so comforting, I'm glad that things that can sustain life are just naturally occurring in our universe. Maybe even after we're gone there's hope for others, and there probably is others, that are too far away to ever reach❤

[vicfrombelgium]

Wow, now that is some cool information.

[kashmunney]

Why doesn’t it take the skin 8mins to feel the heat from the sun that’s pretty much instantly

[aliabdullahsadiq]

But doesn't a photon travel at the speed of light?