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In our opinion, the speed of light is incredibly fast, with a speed of about 299,792 meters per second in the vacuum (or 1,070 billion kilometers per hour). However, from the perspective of the universe, the speed of light is extremely slow – and a NASA scientist has prepared 3 simple animations that help us see the slow speed of light under this cosmic gaze.
James O 'Donoghue, a global scientist from the US Space Agency, encouraged the time needed for light to travel the Earth, as well as between our planet and the moon, as well as relative to Mars. And although the speed of light is faster than the maximum speed that any object can reach when it moves in space, the animations show that the limit of the speed of light in the universe makes it is both fast and slow – It all depends on the point of view
Speed of light relative to the Earth
In this first animation, O & # 39; Donoghue shows how light moves quickly relative to our planet. And as it deals with Earth's point of view, the speed of light in this animation seems extremely fast, as we perceive it here.
Speed of light between the Earth and the Moon
] O & # 39; Donoghue shows in this second animation that the speed of light can already be considered slower if we consider his journey between the Earth and the Moon. The average distance between our planet and its natural satellite is 384,400 km. which means that the light coming from the Moon reaches us with a delay of about 1.25 seconds, while a round trip between the Earth and the Moon at the speed of light lasts about 2, 51 seconds
. the weather increases a little every day, as the moon slowly moves away from the Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimeters a year.
Speed of light between Earth and Mars
And in this third animation of O & # 39; Donoghue, we can already see how fast the speed of light seems slow j when we consider the distance between our planet and its neighbor, Mars. When both planets reach their maximum approach point (which occurs every two years), the shortest possible distance between them is 54.6 million kilometers, the light taking 3 minutes and 2 seconds to move But when you consider the average distance between Earth and Mars (and not just the distance from its maximum approximation), particles traveling at the speed of light take about 14 minutes and 56 seconds on the way. only one way. In other words, NASA spacecraft on Mars transmit data at the speed of light and this delay in communication prevents any "real" task from occurring, as if the vehicles were remote-controlled cars. Therefore, the space agency is working cautiously by sending new orders to the spacecraft and probes so that everything happens at the right time, given that delay. This is also one of the reasons why the Mars 2020 probe, which will be delivered next year, will feature artificial intelligence to be able to perform tasks even more autonomously, besides relying solely on the orders from the Earth during his Martian exploration.
The longer the distance traveled by the light, the longer the distance.
Communications between Earth and ships such as Voyager 1 and 2, or the New Horizons spacecraft, take longer to unfold. ships are moving away from our planet. Voyager 2, which has recently begun its journey to the exit of the solar system and penetrating interstellar space, has reached 18 billion kilometers from the Earth, each message from the ship putting 16 hours and a half to arrive. New Horizons, which flew over the Transnetoonian Ultima Thule object earlier this year (at about 4 billion kilometers from Earth), takes about 6 hours to send signals to NASA.
Cosmic distances increase even if the value of the speed of light remains the same in a vacuum, the time it takes for light to move from one place to another increases, resulting in a extreme consideration of the speed of light. slow to cosmic models. Considering, for example, the exoplanet Proxima b, which gravitates around the Proxima Centauri star and located just 4.2 light-years from Earth: this distance represents about 39.7 billion kilometers and the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, which NASA sent to study the nearby sun and is the fastest ship ever built by man (sailing more than 700,000 kilometers at the hour to its maximum speed) it would take 13,211 years to reach Proxima b. If it was possible to travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.2 years to get there.
The universe is about 13.77 billion years old and it is estimated that the known universe has a diameter of 93 billion light years. . To travel from end to end at the speed of light, the answer is: it would take us an infinite time to traverse the universe because it is constantly expanding, with regions of space remaining forever Isolated because their expansion occurs more quickly
Source: Business Insider (1) and (2), Forbes
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