How long does it take light to travel from the stars to Earth?
Other Galaxies
| Object | Time for the Light to Reach Us |
|---|---|
| The Sun | 8 minutes |
| Jupiter | 35 to 52 minutes |
| Pluto | 5 1/2 hours (on average) |
| Alpha Centauri (nearest star system) | 4.3 years |
How does light from a flashlight travel?
First, in a game of flashlight tag, light from a flashlight travels directly from one point to another. That light travels from the source through the holes and continues on to the next card unless its path is blocked.
How long does it take light from Sirius to reach Earth?
4 years
It takes light 4 years to reach the Earth from Sirius, a near neighbouring star. Using the Hubble telescope, we can see the light from the Eagle Nebula, which takes 7,000 years to reach the Earth.
Can light travel forever?
Light travels forever until it is absorbed. However, if it travels a very long way indeed, it is redshifted by the expansion of the universe.
What happens if you turn on a flashlight in space?
The flashlight is emitting photons in one direction, and photons, even though they have a REST mass of zero, have momentum equal to hf/c where f is the photon frequency and h and c are constants. That means it will accelerate, just as a rocket accelerates opposite to the momentum of hot gases expelled.
What happens if you turn on a flashlight at the speed of light?
The light from that flashlight would be moving at the speed of light (toward the earth). The speed of that light remains fixed, but since it is moving away at an incredible speed, the frequency of the light is lower, making the colors “red shifted”.
How fast is a light year in mph?
670,616,629 mph
In a vacuum, light travels at 670,616,629 mph (1,079,252,849 km/h). To find the distance of a light-year, you multiply this speed by the number of hours in a year (8,766). The result: One light-year equals 5,878,625,370,000 miles (9.5 trillion km).