Moonlight and sunlight don't dawdle
Q: How long does the moon and sun light take to reach the earth? --Georgetown, Guyana
A: Not long. The average distance between the Moon and Earth is 384,400 kilometers (238,900 miles)
and the speed of light is 299,800 kilometers per second. Consequently, it takes a moonbeam about 1.28
seconds to travel from the Moon to Earth, or a smidgeon less than the time it takes to sneeze.
[SOHO, NASA] The Sun and Moon
The Sun, about 400 times farther away, takes 489 seconds or about 8.15 minutes to shine a beam of light to
Earth.
(Answered by April Holladay, science correspondent, November 7 2001)
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