The core of Sol is where compressive forces are at their greatest, sufficient to produce and continuously sustain nuclear fusion. A fusion reaction that occurs at the very center of the sun produces protons that have to travel over 432,000 miles “as the crow flies” to reach the surface of the sun and race radially outward therefrom in the form of visible light. Admittedly the 500,000 year number seems unlikely but IIRC that’s how the math works out in terms of the immense density, “bouncing”, random directionality, and other mind-bending obstacles that any given photon so produced will face in its path toward freedom.
Okay, 5,000 years. Be that way! LOL😉
Something similar is going on inside all the other stars in the galaxy, and in all the stars in billions of other galaxies. Hard to calculate how many photons that adds up to. More than the number of dollars in the national debt, at any rate.
That’s 2.3 seconds (432,000/186,000) at the speed of light in a vacuum (supposedly) A photon prob. takes less that 10 seconds to reach the sun’s surface if that’s true!