why does the heat from the core of the sun takes more than a 1000 years to reach its surface but the heat from the sun to our planet only takes about 8 minutes.

Question

I’m unsure if the 1000 years time is true or not, I just saw a poster of it at an elementary school.

In: 214

Answer 1

When two hydrogen atoms fuse into helium, they release energy in the form of gamma rays. Because the atoms in the sun are so tightly packed together, that energy is re-absorbed by other atoms, only to be re-emitted later. Each jump is very small (on the scale of millimeters or even micrometers) until the energy reaches the outer layers of the sun, at which point it is emitted a final time and escapes the lattice of atoms.