Did You Know?

Did you know light from the Sun reaches Earth in around 8 minutes? Find out more >

Did You Know?

Learn about cool science, history, art, and technology facts and see how they are put to use at The Works. These tid bits of knowledge change frequently, so check back often!

Want to know more about the sun or light? Check out the Look Lab located on the musem's 1st Floor and the "Power of the Sun" exhibit located in the outdoor courtyard! They have tons of cool experiments.

 More information to this "Did You Know?" question:

 

The Power of the Sun

The sun's light takes about 8 minutes to reach the Earth after it has been emitted from the sun's surface. The time it takes for light to reach planets in our Solar System (not the Milky Way, which is our galaxy) varies from about 3 minutes for Mercury, to about 5.3 hours for Pluto. There is nothing out in space to prevent the sun's light from going infinitely far, in principle. In practice, the sun is only 4.5 billion years old, so its light can only extend 4.5 billion light years away from us right now. But there's nothing to stop that light from expanding outwards forever, as time goes on. The sun's radius is about 100 times that of the Earth, meaning that about 1.12 million Earths could fit inside it, as could about 930 Jupiter's.

Next question: If it takes just over 8 minutes for the Sun's light to reach Earth, then if the sun were to suddenly extinguish, would we not know it until just over 8 minutes later?

This is correct. There's no reason for the Sun to suddenly turn off, but more generally, the light from flares or other stellar "weather" also takes 8 minutes to reach us.