A photon is a tiny particle that comprises waves of electromagnetic radiation. As shown by Maxwell,
photons are just electric fields traveling through space
. Photons have no charge, no resting mass, and travel at the speed of light.
Can light travel through space yes or no?
Light travels as a wave. But unlike sound waves or water waves, it does not need any matter or material to carry its energy along. This means that
light can travel through a vacuum? a completely airless space
.
Can photons travel through free space?
Therefore the
photons or electromagnetic waves in vacuum can traveling indefinitely as long as they do not interact with another object
. “Therefore the photons or electromagnetic waves in vacuum can traveling indefinitely as long as they do not interact with another object.”
How fast do photons travel in space?
The theory of special relativity showed that particles of light, photons, travel through a vacuum at a constant pace of
670,616,629 miles per hour
— a speed that’s immensely difficult to achieve and impossible to surpass in that environment.
Do photons last forever?
Now, by studying ancient light radiated shortly after the big bang, a physicist has calculated the minimum lifetime of photons, showing that
they must live for at least one billion billion years, if not forever
.
Do photons always travel at the speed of light?
A photon of light does not accelerate to light speed. Rather, a photon is already traveling at light speed c when it is created. It’s not like a photon jumps from a speed of zero to light speed instantaneously. Rather,
a photon is always traveling at c, from the moment of its creation
.
Is light infinite?
Were there an infinite value for the speed of light,
light itself would not exist at all
. Mathematically, the wave equation that describes light as an electromagnetic wave would lose its time-dependence.
Does light dissipate in space?
In contrast, light waves can travel through a vacuum, and do not require a medium.
In empty space, the wave does not dissipate
(grow smaller) no matter how far it travels, because the wave is not interacting with anything else.
Does light have mass?
Light has no mass
so it also has no energy according to Einstein, but how can sunlight warm the earth without energy? Light indeed carries energy via its momentum despite having no mass.
Why is space dark?
Because space is a near-perfect vacuum — meaning it has exceedingly few particles — there’s virtually nothing in the space between stars and planets to scatter light to our eyes
. And with no light reaching the eyes, they see black. —What color is the sunset on other planets?
Why can sound not travel through space?
Sound does not travel at all in space. The vacuum of outer space has essentially zero air.
Because sound is just vibrating air, space has no air to vibrate and therefore no sound
.
Can light sound and heat travel through space?
When an object vibrates, it sends sound waves off in all directions. However, sounds waves can only travel through mediums such as air, water, and objects. In other words,
sound cannot travel in a vacuum
.
Will FTL ever be possible?
Apparent FTL is not excluded by general relativity; however,
any apparent FTL physical plausibility is currently speculative
. Examples of apparent FTL proposals are the Alcubierre drive, Krasnikov tubes, traversable wormholes, and quantum tunneling.
Why can’t you go faster than the speed of light?
So
the faster something travels, the more massive it gets, and the more time slows – until you finally reach the speed of light, at which point time stops altogether
. And if time stops, well then, so does speed. And so nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.
Do wormholes in space exist?
Einstein’s theory of general relativity mathematically predicts the existence of wormholes, but
none have been discovered to date
. A negative mass wormhole might be spotted by the way its gravity affects light that passes by.
Can you freeze a photon?
For some time now
it has been possible to freeze photons and re-emit them on command
. However, whilst they are stopped, the photons do not exist as such. They are swallowed by an atomic cloud, which then assumes a so-called excited state and stores the photon as information.
Can you have light without photons?
The answer is then
definitely “no”
: the photon is a massless particle.
Can photons hit each other?
Since light itself does not have electric charge,
one photon cannot directly interact with another photon
. Instead, they just pass right through each other without being affected. Because they are bosons and because they carry no electric charge, one photon cannot directly bounce off another photon.
Why are photons always moving?
A photon is a pulse of an electric field which when it collapses produces a magnetic field which when it collapses produces an electric field and so on and on until either the electric field and/or the magnetic field is absorbed by something. In other words
the photon propagates itself thus moving away from the source
.
Can light be slowed down?
Scientists have long known that
the speed of light can be slowed slightly as it travels through materials such as water or glass
. However, it has generally been thought impossible for particles of light, known as photons, to be slowed as they travel through free space, unimpeded by interactions with any materials.
Is light faster than darkness?
Darkness travels at the speed of light
. More accurately, darkness does not exist by itself as a unique physical entity, but is simply the absence of light. Any time you block out most of the light – for instance, by cupping your hands together – you get darkness.
What did Einstein say about the speed of light?
According to physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, on which much of modern physics is based,
nothing in the universe can travel faster than light
. The theory states that as matter approaches the speed of light, the matter’s mass becomes infinite.
Is time Travelling possible?
In Summary:
Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing
. But it’s not quite what you’ve probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second.
Why do photons not experience time?
Yet despite this incredible journey, the photon itself experiences none of what we know as time:
it simply is emitted and then instantaneously is absorbed, experiencing the entirety of its travels through space in literally no time
. Given everything that we know, a photon never ages in any way at all.
Do photons follow Geodesics?
The most commonly accepted view is that gravity bends spacetime, and the curvature itself is the deformation of spacetime itself.
All known particles (not just photons) follow this geodesic.
Why do photons not lose energy?
Electrons radiate and lose energy if they travel on a curved path around a magnetic field line.) Photons carry energy, but they don’t lose energy
just because they travel
.
How does a photon lose energy?
Actually, however, there is one way that photons do lose energy as they travel through space.
Because the universe is expanding, the photon’s wavelength increases very slightly over time
, and in so doing loses a bit of energy.
