Question

(a) How much time does light take to reach us from the sun?

(b) How much time does light take to reach us from the next nearest star 'Proxima centauri'?

Answer 1

(a) Sunlight travels at the speed of light. Photons emitted from the surface of the Sun need to travel across the vacuum of space to reach our eyes. It takes around 8 minutes 20 seconds to travel from the sun to the earth.
(b) Proxima Centauri is about 4.22 light-years from Earth and is the closest star other than the sun.