By: Nicholas Glasenapp

How Fast Does Light Travel?

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Light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. If light left from the sun right now it would reach Jupiter in about 4 minutes.

Comparison Of Relative Speed. Felix Baumgartner broke the speed of sound at 833.9 mph. If Baumgartner’s speed was converted into miles per second in order to compare it to the speed of light, his speed would be reduced to .231 miles per second or 1/5th of a mile, a second. (which is pretty fast)

How Fast Does it Move? Light can travel 5,878,499,817 miles in one year. That is a super long distance. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star located at a distance of 4.2 light-years away. That is about 24,000,000,000 miles away.

Solar Flare A solar flare is a radioactive wave that transmits from the sun when a large eruption occurs. These radioactive waves can zap any electronics if not turned off. A solar flare hit the earth in the 1800s, but it did not matter because electricity wasn’t the big thing back then. The waves reach the earth in about eight minutes.