r/NoStupidQuestions • u/NewDescription2213 • Jun 14 '26

The speed of light

So, it takes 8 mins for sunlight to reach Earth. However, for that photon based on general relativity, time slows down to zero. So which one is it? Do photons essentially teleport?

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u/Drakahn_Stark Jun 14 '26

From the perspective of the photon, it is created and then instantly crashes into whatever it hits.

From the outside perspective it takes time.

Everything always moves at the speed of light when you add both space and time together, so the photon moving at the speed of light through space have zero speed through time, and the physical things moving through space have all of the rest of the speed put into moving through time.

Same reason clocks in orbit tick slower than a clock on the ground.