science ☀️ Sun's light takes ages to reach us
Sunlight takes only about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun's surface to Earth. However, the energy inside the Sun can take up to 500,000 years to reach the surface. This long journey happens because photons undergo random walks through the Sun's dense plasma. Calculations from 1992 estimated a diffusion timescale of around 170,000 years for the Sun. The energy changes form as it moves outward, meaning the final photon isn't the original one. ☀️