How does light store and transfer HUGE amount of data yet it’s still the fastest thing in the universe?

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I’m not sure if I worded my question correctly, but let me try to explain more.

If we use a giant telescope to look at another planet 10 light years away from us, we would be looking at how it was 10 years ago. The thing I don’t understand is how does light store and also transfer all the information about that planet (or all the “data” that ends up in our eyes) and yet it’s still the fastest thing.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Light doesn’t carry data per se. When a photon bounces off an object it’s intensity and/or wavelength is altered by the thing it bounces off of.

So one can imagine a massive number of photons each being altered by what it reflects off of. Think of shooting billions and billions of white ping pong balls at an object and those ping pong balls changing color and intensity based on the element they bounce off of or pass through.

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