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How long for sunlight to reach earth?

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Sunlight travels at the speed of light. Photons emitted from the surface of the Sun need to travel across the vacuum of space to reach our eyes. The short answer is that it takes sunlight an average of 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth. read more

Remember, the Earth follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun, ranging from 147 million to 152 million km. At its closest point, sunlight only takes 490 seconds to reach Earth. And then at the most distant point, it takes 507 seconds for sunlight to make the journey. read more

The path of the Earth around the sun is not a perfect circle, so at certain times, the Earth is closer to the sun than at other times. Hence, this distance is an average distance. The time taken for light to reach the Earth can be calculated by dividing the distance between the Earth and the sun by the speed of light. read more

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