Categories: Digital LifeVideo

How long does it take light to travel from the sun to Pluto?


Size comparisons: Earth, the Moon, and Pluto

Light is the fastest thing in the universe. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. What is the speed of light? It’s about 299,792 kilometers per second.

But even the speed of light is no match to the vast virtually infinite emptiness of the universe. Heck, even in our very own solar system it can take light hours to reach a distant planet.

And to illustrate the fact, James O’Donoghue, a Nasa scientist based at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA, created this brilliantly simple video that shows how long it takes light – originating from the sun – to reach the planets in our solar system.

It takes about 8 minutes for light to reach Earth and over FIVE hours for the same light beam to reach Pluto, the farthest known (dwarf) planet in our solar system. At its closest point to Earth, Pluto is about 4.38 billion kilometres away.

Check out the video:

To put that into perspective, if you drove off to Penang from KL at the same time as the beam of light leaving the sun to Pluto, you’d probably reach Penang first with time to spare before light reaches Pluto.

We may not be able to travel at the speed of light but at least this is one race that you can say you’re faster than light.

[image credit]

Recent Posts

Malaysia Airlines’ new A330neo grounded temporarily due to production issues

Malaysia Airlines has temporarily grounded its brand new Airbus A330neo after completing four commercial flights.…

5 hours ago

Proton e.MAS 7: Here’s how much it cost to maintain this EV

Pro-Net recently revealed that you only need to service the new Proton e.MAS 7 EV…

2 days ago

Proton e.MAS 7: How much does it cost to replace the tyres?

The Proton e.MAS 7 is one of the most value for money SUVs at the…

2 days ago

Samsung to launch its new AI-powered home appliances with improved ecosystem integration at CES 2025

Samsung has announced that it will be holding its press conference titled "AI for All:…

2 days ago

SoyaCincau Awards 2024: The Best Phones of the Year

Modern smartphones are very capable computing devices, thanks to powerful hardware trickling down the price…

2 days ago

CelcomDigi offers 5G Home WiFi at RM69/month for Postpaid customers

If you're a CelcomDigi Postpaid 5G customer and can't get fibre broadband for your home,…

2 days ago

This website uses cookies.