Earth and Space
Ancient photons
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
It typically takes around 500,000 years for a photon to be emitted from the solar interior. The interior of the Sun consists of high-density plasma which absorbs and re-emits photons as they travel. A photon would travel only 10 -4 m before being absorbed and then re-emitted in a random direction. On average, it will have to make 49 x 10 24 steps in order to be emitted.
References
Ancient photons
H. S. Goldberg, & M. D. Scadron, Physics of Stellar Evolution and Cosmology, Basel, Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1981, p. 150
