The Adventurous Life Of A Photon

Ever thought about the life of a photon from the instant of its formation until it reaches your beautiful eyes?

Even now when you’re reading this million of photons enter into your eye making the reading possible. Let me take you through the most amazing and adventurous life of the swiftest athlete in the universe. Picture a distant galaxy somewhere in the far corner of the universe, for instance, The Sagittarius DwarfElliptical Galaxy which is approximately 70,000 lightyears away. A photon is born in the inferno of a star as a by-product of the fusion of hydrogen into helium. It has a quite different fate that takes it through the most challenging journey as it surfs through the boundless universe. A photon undertakes a strenuous expedition to leave its place of birth. It is absorbed and re-emitted infinite times by the neighboring atoms before reaching the star’s photosphere. On reaching the star’s photosphere a photon attains complete freedom to step into the universe. Some scientists believe the star plasma becomes transparent for the photon to fly into the universe.

The newly born space traveler travels across the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy ( Sag DEG) in a few hundred years. During this difficult trip, it pays close visits to other stars and galaxies. Our traveler along with its companions sometimes may encounter clusters of nebulae which absorb them. So many of our traveler’s companions expire in their journey. Only the lucky ones get to explore the universe further. The path of a photon is straight at most times but their path gets curved due to the massive stars, nebulae, black holes, planets, galaxies. If the Scientists get to know about the complete journey of a photon across the universe they would be able to predict the extent of curvature of space. Amazing ! Isn’t it?

The influence of the Sag DEG is still imminent on the photon trying to pull the photon towards its center. Yet, the speed of our sprinter never changes.

During this journey of the photon, several changes take place in the Earth. Many species evolve, flourish and go extinct, ice ages come and go, several civilizations rise and perish. But, the photon never fails to reach its destination. The photon on entering our milky way galaxy gets pulled by the massive bodies but somehow reaches the Earth’s atmosphere and its path is increasingly bent while passing through the atmosphere. It then falls on the telescope and enters the cornea of the eye in an immeasurable amount of time. The lens of the eye is strategically designed to bring the photon and its companions to a common point on the retina by refraction.

An incredible chain of events takes place right after this enabling us to see the distant galaxies. This is only possible because of the brave journey undertaken by the photon across the universe so that we could see the mysterious and most breathtaking sights of the cosmos. Isn’t the photon an inter-galactic superhero?The answer is undeniable yes !

Image Source: Google