Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: thedoc on 12/03/2014 19:30:01
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Jordan Munroe asked the Naked Scientists:
It takes light about 8 minutes to reach earth from the surface of the sun, but it can take an excess of 30,000 years for light to make it out of its core.
What do you think?
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I think light is a bit of a misnomer the radiation generated at the 15MK core of the Sun is presumably gamma radiation that gets degrade down to visible/UV as it fights it's way out
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This depends upon exactly how light interacts with hot dense matter. The emission of photons is followed by a drop in energy of an electron, because of the heat and density the emissions will be a continuous process under these conditions as will absorption. So the uncertainty of an individual photon making it to the surface will be high.
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I think light is a bit of a misnomer the radiation generated at the 15MK core of the Sun is presumably gamma radiation that gets degrade down to visible/UV as it fights it's way out
Gamma radiation is still light. It's still photons. Visible light would be a misnomer, but I didn't say visible light.
This depends upon exactly how light interacts with hot dense matter. The emission of photons is followed by a drop in energy of an electron, because of the heat and density the emissions will be a continuous process under these conditions as will absorption. So the uncertainty of an individual photon making it to the surface will be high.
Who said anything about individual photons?