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What does the speed of light look like on Earth?  Watch the video for Goosebumps!

What does the speed of light look like on Earth? Watch the video for Goosebumps!

The speed of light in a vacuum is about 300 thousand kilometers per second. Here's what it would look like on Earth

The speed of light in a vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, a universal constant known in equations as “CAccording to Einstein's special theory of relativity, there is nothing in the universe that can travel faster than light. The theory states that when matter approaches the speed of light, its mass becomes infinite. This means that the speed of light serves as the speed limit for the entire universe.

How did we calculate it?

Romer made the first measurement of the speed of light in 1676 while observing the moons of Jupiter. Romer was able to measure the speed of light by observing the eclipse of Jupiter's moon. Io. When Jupiter was closest to Earth, Roemer observed an eclipse Io It occurred a little earlier than when Jupiter was far away. Romer then attributed this effect to the time it takes for light to travel a longer distance when Jupiter is farther from Earth.

10 trillion kilometers

A light year is the distance light can travel in one year: about 10 trillion kilometers. It's one of the ways astronomers and physicists measure the vast distances of our universe. Light travels from the Moon to our eyes in about one second, which means the Moon is about one light-second away. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach our eyes, so the Sun is about 8 light minutes away. The light is coming And Alpha Centauriour closest star system, takes about 4.3 years to get here, so Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light-years away.

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The speed of light
Credit: NASA

The speed of light and the past

When astronomers study distant objects, they see light that shows the objects as they were when the light left them. This principle allows astronomers to see the universe as it appeared after the Big Bang, which occurred about 13.8 billion years ago. Objects 10 billion light-years away appear to astronomers as they did 10 billion years ago – relatively shortly after the birth of the universe – rather than as they appear today. Below is the video:

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