Tuesday 13 August 2019

visible light - Photons from stars--how do they fill in such large angular distances?


It would seem that far-away stars are at such a distance that I should be able to take a step to the side and not have the star's photons hit my eye. How do stars release so many photons to fill in such great angular distances?



Answer



The answer is simple: Yes, stars really do produce that many photons. This calculation is a solid (though very rough) approximation that a star the size of the sun might emit about $10^{45}$ visible photons per second (1 followed by 45 zeros, a billion billion billion billion billion photons).


You can do the calculation: If you're 10 light-years away from that star, you are nevertheless getting bombarded by 1 million photons per square centimeter in each second.



$$\frac{10^{45}\ \text{photons}/\mathrm s}{4\pi (10 \ \text{lightyears})^2} \approx 10^6\ \text{photons}/(\mathrm{cm^2\ s)}$$


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