The light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old.

Well that is incorrect. It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for the suns light to reach earth.

@Frederik i think its just in the sun four 29,999 years,364 days 52 minites and 40 seconds

only half of the earth is receiving light from the sun an a given time.....

You sir are genius! How did you ever come up with that conclusion? Nobel prize!

this fact needs to be edited... light is hitting the earth from all directions, that's why we can see stars in distant universes millions of light-years away. True, there is light hitting the earth that is thirty thousand years old but there is also light hitting the earth that is 30 million years old. The farther you look into space, the older that light is that is hitting your eyes allowing you to see wherever it's coming from.

It's definitely scientifically proven that the light and energy from the sun only takes 7 minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun.

This is incorrect. Time is at a standstill for photons traveling at light speed.

no it is not correct

Since the Suns distance to Earth is 150.000.000 Km. And the speed of light is 300.000 km/s. It takes 500 seconds for the light to reach the Earth surface from the sun. ( 150.000.000 : 500 = 300.000)

500 seconds is like 8, 20 seconds....it takes 8, 20 seconds to reach the earth..

One fact to remember is that energy never dies. Energy is just moved from here to there. For example: A humans punch with a fist, the energy comes from food which grows from the ground or something that has been eating from the ground, the "energy" from the ground grows by the energy from the sun, and the energy in the sun comes from nuclear fusion, which is when two hydrogen atoms collides into a helium atom. The atoms come from the big bang, so Big bang is the source of energy


I AM JUST BORED!

It takes the SUN'S LIGHT 8min and 20 sec. to reach the earth [but that is not what the fact is stating!!!!], there is light from other places that are hitting the earth right NOW that is millions or even BILLIONS of years old. Besides Brittany, everyone else is being closeminded or needs to read more carefully... morons!!!!!!!!!!!

no need 2 call us morons or closeminded

I believe this fact means that the light from our sun hitting earth is 30 thousand years old. If you think about it, the photons generated at the core of the sun bounces off in a rather random direction as it makes it's way out. So random that the average time for the photons to reach the surface of the sun is 30 thousand years.

The reason for such a phenomenal is simply the fact that the sun is very dense. It is filled with super-heated gaseous ions and just imagine you are standing in a very crowded place versus an empty field. To travel 100m in a crowded place, you have to squeeze your way through the crowd as compared to just sprinting across the empty field.

light comes in small partiles that have many collisions inside the sun,so it approximately takes about 29,999.999988 years to get out of the sun and 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach earth.

I forgot to tell that the particles of light are called protons

Light particles are photons, not protons.
What the fact means is that light that is emitted from hydrogen fusion in the Sun's core actually takes thousands of years to emerge from the sun's surface because it has to bounce a lot to detour around layers of matter in the sun. After it comes out of the sun, it will only take 7-8 minutes to reach us.

That's Nonsense. Light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach the earth.

light hits from all directions.. makes no sense

The sun's light is not the only light hitting the earth! Hello, have you ever seen stars at night??? That light takes many many years to reach us. This fact is NOT TALKING ABOUT THE SUN'S LIGHT PEOPLE... We learn in like the forth grade that it takes about 8min for the sun's light to reach us -duh so i'm sorry @someone, but MORONS read more carefully! Then make a comment plz and thk u............. -________-

A lightyear is the distance light travels in one year, if light hitting us is 30 000 years old then there must be a star 30 000 lightyears away and there is no star at that distance from us.

Not true, It takes about 9 min for the light to reach the earth

This isn't necessarily true, the light from the sun takes approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth. The light from the different stars all took different times to reach Earth.

What it should read is, "A portion of the light- that coming form some stars- hitting the Earth is billions of years old. Light form the sun is eight minutes, twenty seconds old."

Wow! Some of you really need to work on your reading comprehension. For those of you who need it explained simply and clearly, please read Clarence's statement regarding light emitted by the sun.

can a star hit the earth

The only star within our solar system is the sun. The closest star is Proxima Centauri and it is approximately 4x10^13 kilometers, (or 2.5x10^13 if you are american) in distance from the Earth.

nice