How does time pass for a photon?

Well, not for light. In fact, photons don’t experience any time at all. Here’s a mind-bending concept that should shatter your brain into pieces. As you might know, I co-host Astronomy Cast, and get to pick the brain of the brilliant astrophysicist Dr.

Do photons always travel at the same speed?

Through the vacuum of space, no matter what their energy is, they always travel at the speed of light. The highest-energy photon and the lowest-energy photon ever observed both travel at exactly the same speed. All massless particles travel at the speed of light, including the photon, gluon and gravitational… [+]

Do photons move through 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.

Does a photon travel in all directions?

In contrast, light waves can travel through a vacuum, and do not require a medium. As a wave travels from a source, it propagates outward in all directions. Therefore, it fills a space given approximately by the surface area of a sphere.

Does time pass at the speed of light?

The simple answer is, “Yes, it is possible to stop time. All you need to do is travel at light speed.” Special Relativity pertains specifically to light. The fundamental tenet is that light speed is constant in all inertial reference frames, hence the denotation of “c” in reference to light.

What direction does a photon go?

Photons “have” no direction or location until absorbed by detectors. Always remember that electrons emitting photons are doing the same thing as radio antennas, spewing out EM in a specific “radiation-pattern,” …but where the field-energy is quantized rather than continuous (Photons are not like little bullets.

Does photon always travel in a straight line?

Photons do not travel in straight lines. Quantum particles do not have trajectories as classical particles do. Photons do not propagate in all directions as a spherical wave does. Photons are not waves.