"Real time" video of light traveling from our Sun to Jupiter

Blew my mind. I'm sorry I can't imbed, I looked for a YouTube link but got lazy.

The speed of light is something I can't wrap my mind around, and in this video it seems almost slow. I also can't quite wrap my mind around just how massive the universe is either.

Link to video.

Light is too slow. I'm running 5 minutes late to my job on Jupiter.

Good animation. nice find
a reply to: Domo1

Amazing.. Such a great perspective on how small you are.

The photons you see are old, really old,

The high-energy photons (gamma rays) released in fusion reactions take indirect paths to the Sun's surface. According to current models, random scattering from free electrons in the solar radiative zone (the zone within 75% of the solar radius, where heat transfer is by radiation) sets the photon diffusion time scale (or "photon travel time") from the core to the outer edge of the radiative zone at about 170,000 years

So while it takes a matter of minutes for a photon to reach earth it took the same photon 170,000 years to escape the sun.


Source

originally posted by: Domo1
The speed of light is something I can't wrap my mind around, and in this video it seems almost slow.

It's amazing how slow it seems when you're cruising along at the speed of light in open space. But those planets whiz by in less than a second and that gives you a real sense of the raw speed a photon has. The light hitting your eye now could have been off in a far Earth orbit distance less than a second ago.

Yeah its crazy to think that if the sun exploded as you read this you wouldnt actually know about it for 8 minutes.

originally posted by: Domo1
Blew my mind. I'm sorry I can't imbed, I looked for a YouTube link but got lazy.


Link to video.

Yuh need a good slap!

Thanks, I needed a slap in the face on perspective this morning. Awesome video.

They say Einstein used to meditate and picture himself riding a beam of light through the Universe.

He would picture how the light beam he was riding interacted with various objects throughout the Universe.

They think that's how he worked on his theory of relativity.

I tried it but got to focused on the cool lights and trails, almost induced a flashback.

a reply to: Domo1

Almost slow? Seems like molasses. Gives one a new perspective, thanks for posting. I always thought of light as more instantaneous from my limited perspective here. I'm really glad to have seen that. Makes it seem possible that one day we could travel at such speeds.

Wow amazing , so if the sun decides to explode we have exactly "eight minutes and twenty seconds" for eternal darkness begins. . Nice movie title btw. .

originally posted by: Biigs
Yeah its crazy to think that if the sun exploded as you read this you wouldnt actually know about it for 8 minutes.

Fun comparison to this, if there was air [at sea level pressure] between us and the sun, we wouldnt hear the 'boom' for 14 years.

a reply to: Domo1

cool. thanks!

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
The photons you see are old, really old,

The high-energy photons (gamma rays) released in fusion reactions take indirect paths to the Sun's surface. According to current models, random scattering from free electrons in the solar radiative zone (the zone within 75% of the solar radius, where heat transfer is by radiation) sets the photon diffusion time scale (or "photon travel time") from the core to the outer edge of the radiative zone at about 170,000 years

So while it takes a matter of minutes for a photon to reach earth it took the same photon 170,000 years to escape the sun.
Source

What you say is correct, but here's an interesting thought:

Photons of light do not experience the passage of time

I understand what you are saying about the photon of light taking an average of 170,000 years to get from the inside of the Sun (where it was created through fusion) to the open space outside the Sun. That's because of the time it takes to be absorbed and re-emitted by all of the dense material inside the Sun...

...However, once that photon is free to move through space, it does not notice the passage of time. That's because the photon is traveling at the speed of light, and when things move at the speed of light, time stands still for that thing. A photon of light emitted from the Andromeda galaxy (which you can see with the naked eye) may take 2 million Earth years between the time it was emitted from a star in Andromeda until the time that photon reaches your eye and is adsorbed by your retina -- BUT from the point of view of the photon, no time at all has passed. It was absorbed by your retina instantaneously after it was emitted from the surface of the star.


Does Light Experience Time?

Just think about that idea. From the perspective of a photon, there is no such thing as time. It's emitted, and might exist for hundreds of trillions of years, but for the photon, there's zero time elapsed between when it's emitted and when it's absorbed again. It doesn't experience distance either.

To further explain how time does not exist for light, here is a YouTube video of Fraser Cain (of "the Universe Today" website) explaining how light does not experience the passage of time as it is moving through space. By the way, beginning at the 2:26 mark, he also touches upon what you said about the photon of light taking a while to get out of the Sun in the first place:
Mind-blowing stuff.

Love this.

well, there is that and the vaporization process and whatnot...a reply to: 0bserver1

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People


To further explain how time does not exist for light, here is a YouTube video of Fraser Cain (of "the Universe Today" website) explaining how light does not experience the passage of time as it is moving through space. By the way, beginning at the 2:26 mark, he also touches upon what you said about the photon of light taking a while to get out of the Sun in the first place:

Mind-blowing stuff.

That's a good post and link.

Awesome concept, disregarding the facts of physics that would make an actual "video" from a photon's perspective much different, it drives home that light speed is very slow when the true vastness of space is experienced like this... as was the idea.

I had always pictured Mercury as much closer to the Sun.

This reminds me of the compilation video of millions of snapshots that were spliced together to show light traveling through a liter Coke bottle in slow motion... I think it's in the TED talks... but ...really... in this persepctive light speed is so slow, heh.

I hope the universe has a fast lane... humans are so impatient that light speed now seems like the old person you get stuck behind on the highway or sidewalk.

Thanks for posting this.

The Sun is truly amazing.
There should be a Major Religion based upon Sun Worship.

a reply to: James1970

Forget the sun, your avatar art gif had me mesmerized for a full minute and brought back memories... from last week.

Any links for animated psychedelia?