Astronomy Picture of the Day - Driving to the Sun

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 3 Oct, 2020 | Image Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA

[MtnClimber]

A follow on to yesterday's "Biking to the Moon".

Explanation: How long would it take to drive to the Sun? Brittany age 7, and D.J. age 12, ponder this question over dinner one evening. James also age 7, suggests taking a really fast racing car while Christopher age 4, eagerly agrees. Jerry, a really old guy who is used to estimating driving time on family trips based on distance divided by speed, offers to do the numbers. "Let's see ... the Sun is 93 million miles away. If we drove 93 miles per hour the trip would only take us 1 million hours." How long is 1 million hours? One year is 365 days times 24 hours per day, or 8,760 hours. One hundred years would be 876,000 hours, but that's still a little short of the 1 million hour drive time. So the Sun is really quite far away. Christopher is not impressed, but as he grows older he will be. You've got to be impressed by something that's 93 million miles away and still hurts your eyes when you look at it!

[MtnClimber]

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[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging yje APOD list.

[Repeal The 17th]

It takes 8.3 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the earth.

[pghoilman]

Is that a sunspot?

[Ciaphas Cain]

It takes 8.3 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the earth

It also takes a single photon, from the time it is emitted from the core, 10,000 years to reach the sun's surface and embark on that last 8.3 minutes.

[jmacusa]

But it takes millions of years for those particles to work their way up and outward from the Sun’s core.

[jmacusa]

The Sun is about 93.3 million miles from Earth so... I dunno, speed of light? Not sure. Anyway you’d burn up before you got close.

[jmacusa]

Only 10.000 years? I thought it was much longer. And you’re right ‘’photons’’, not ‘’particles’’.

[Repeal The 17th]

Is 10,000 years or a million years for the photons to reach the surface?
Regardless, any image we have of the sun is how it looked 8.3 minutes ago.
-
(If something is headed towards you at the speed of light,
can you see it coming?)

[rellic]

The photons start as gama particles and it takes a much longer time to get out.
I point to people who care to this source.

https://sciencing.com/long-photons-emerge-suns-core-outside-10063.html

Depending on your assumptions 1 million to as little as 5 thousand years before the photon starts that 8 minute plus part of the journey, from the Suns surface to you.

[jmacusa]

No normal object can travel at the speed of light. If it did it's mass would increase precipitously and so would the energy needed to propel it. For we mere mortals we would need to have the time to see an object travel past us.

[jmacusa]

I was going on information from a documentary on the Sun and other sources. Astronomy is a hobby of mine. Alas, I'm merely an amateur. I do happen to live in a convenient area though. The Atlantic Ocean is about eight miles due east of my back door so I'm not bothered by light pollution.

The views on most nights, especially during the new moon phase are fantastic.

I have a six inch Newtonian refractor scope.

[BatGuano]

And the next nearest star only 4.2 years!

At the speed of light, when would you begin to slow down?

The overshoot might be long.

[BatGuano]

You can’t drive to the sun. If you try, go at night. (grin)

[BatGuano]

Particles or Waves?

[jmacusa]

Particles.

[sasquatch]

Photons do it every day.
Neutrinos do it at night.

[jmacusa]

Naughty things!

[CurlyDave]

...I have a six inch Newtonian refractor scope...

I bet you actually have a 6 inch Newtonian reflector.