Question
How long does it take sunlight to reach Earth?

How long does it take sunlight to reach Earth?

Last updated: November 15, 2023

Someday the sun will expand so much that it will engulf the Earth and everything on it. Thankfully, we've still got billions of years before that happens, so no need to panic just yet (although it never hurts to plan ahead).

But let's say one of those UAPs decides to blow up the star at the center of our solar system — if you're just a regular person hanging around in the sun, you wouldn't even notice. Not immediately.

Thanks to the time it takes for sunlight to travel through the void of space and help us make tea, you'd have this exact amount of time before things went dark.

Click START to play trivia.

 

Correct Answer: 8.3 minutes

The answer is: 8.3 minutes. Light is the fastest thing there is, so the fact that it takes over 8 minutes to get from the sun to Earth really goes to show just how far we are from the big fireball. By comparison, how many people could even run a single mile in 8 minutes, let alone millions? We never really think about light as having to, you know, travel, but it must make a cosmic journey from the sun before warming us down here on Terra.Source

Share This Trivia

Related Topics

Want More Nostalgia?

Check out our other quizzes and random trivia questions!