Here's the math. We orbit the Sun at a distance of about 150 million km. Light moves at 300,000 kilometers/second. Divide these and you get 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 20 seconds. This is an average number. Remember, the Earth follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun, ranging from 147 million to 152 million km. At its closest point, sunlight only takes 490 seconds to reach Earth.
And then at the most distant point, it takes 507 seconds for sunlight to make the journey. But the story of light gets even more interesting, when you think about the journey light needs to make inside the Sun. You probably know that photons are created by fusion reactions inside the Sun's core.
They start off as gamma radiation and then are emitted and absorbed countless times in the Sun's radiative zone, wandering around inside the massive star before they finally reach the surface.
