TIL about the light-time delay from Jupiter during a phone call

I was on a long call with my sister and realized that when we see Jupiter, we're looking at light that left over half an hour ago. It puts human impatience into perspective.

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_fox11d ago

But does thinking about that actually change anything when you're waiting for a text back lmao

cole_hart2711d ago

Half an hour? That's the part that gets me. The signal has only been traveling for like 43 minutes at most? Makes Neptune seem absolutely insane.

cameronf4111d ago

Right? It blows my mind every single time... like a radio wave going that fast has barely started its trip across our own solar system. I read once that a signal from Neptune would take over four hours to reach Earth. It makes our whole planet feel like a tiny blue dot.