That sunlight on your face? It's already 8 minutes old.
That sunlight on your face? It's already 8 minutes old. Light is the fastest thing in existence — about 300,000 kilometres every single second. Nothing beats it. And yet even at that speed, crossing the 150 million kilometres between the Sun and Earth takes around 8 minutes and 20 seconds. So when you step outside and feel the warmth, you're not feeling the Sun as it is now. You're feeling it as it was, slightly in the past, delayed by the sheer distance involved. Here's what makes that stranger still: if the Sun were to vanish this instant, you'd have no idea for over 8 minutes. Darkness wouldn't arrive — it would catch up. And our nearest stellar neighbour, Proxima Centauri? Its light takes over 4 years to reach us. Space doesn't care how fast light is. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe.