Sunlight’s long interior voyage: ~170,000 years to diffuse through the Sun, then eight minutes to Earth

Light from the Sun reaches Earth in about eight minutes, but the energy that becomes sunlight spends roughly 170,000 years diffusing through the Sun’s dense interior via countless absorptions and re-emissions. The 500,000-year figure is not supported by peer‑reviewed sources. After escaping the photosphere, photons traverse space to Earth in about eight minutes.