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What is the age of the sunlight that touches you: 19 seconds, about 2 minutes, 8.3 minutes, or two hours?
Question
#42415. Asked by SPLENDOUR. (Dec 17 03 8:06 AM)
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sequoianoir
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A quick calculation using the distance of the Sun from the Earth at 93,000,000 miles and the speed of light at 186,000 miles per second :
93,000,000 / 186,000 = 500 seconds (8 minutes 20 secs)
Of course, this is only true if it comes straight from the Sun.
Reflected from the Moon and you could add another 1.5 seconds.
Looking at Mars means the reflected light you see is between 17 minutes and 33 minutes 40 seconds old depending where it and the Earth are in their orbits and the relative distances.
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