📊 Sunlight on Your Face Took 100,000 Years

A photon warming your face now began its journey from the Sun's core about 100,000 years ago, when early humans were just leaving Africa and Neanderthals still lived. Inside the Sun, photons collide constantly with electrons, bouncing randomly through dense plasma, making their path trillions of times longer than a straight line.

This slow random walk happens in the Sun's radiative zone, covering 70% of its radius. Photons lose energy step by step, shifting from high-energy gamma rays to visible light by the time they reach the surface. The final stretch through the convective zone takes only months, but the bulk of the journey is a century-long crawl.

📊@tech