Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. How far is Earth from the Sun in kilometers, assuming speed of light is 3 × 10⁸ m/s?

Sat, 02 May 2026 15:47:19 +0000

How Far is Earth from the Sun? Light Takes About 8 Minutes and 20 Seconds to Travel Have you ever wondered just how vast space really is? One fascinating fact is that light from the Sun takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel to Earth. This seemingly short delay reveals the immense distance between our planet and our nearest star—about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). In this article, we’ll explore how this cosmic light travel time is calculated and exactly how far Earth sits from the Sun. ### The Speed of Light: A Cosmic Speed Limit Light travels at an extraordinary speed of about 3 × 10⁸ meters per second (300 million meters per second). To understand why it takes roughly 8 minutes and 20 seconds for sunlight to reach Earth, we need to compute the distance light travels in that time.