How long does it take light from Jupiter to reach the Earth?

Answer 1

The average time it takes light from Jupiter to reach the Earth is about 43 minutes.

The shortest amount of time it takes light from Jupiter to reach the Earth is about 35 minutes. The longest amount of time is about 52 minutes. The variance is due to the changing distance between Earth and Jupiter as the two planets orbit the Sun.

Answer 2

Travelling at 1000 km per hour, about the same speed as a passenger plane, it would take around 68.5 years to cover 600 million km, which is the approximate nearest earth to Jupiter distance. A space probe has a much greater speed though, it can make the trip in just a few years.

Answer 3

It varies. First you have to take into account each planet's orbital position compared to one another, in other words were are they in their respective orbits. Other factors that influence travel time could be weight of the spacecraft or the gravitational assist techniques used in slowing down and speeding up the ship during transit. For example the Galileo spacecraft launched 18 Oct, 1989 arrived at Jupiter a little over 6 years later on Dec 7, 1995. By contrast, the Voyager missions took less than 2 years. The Voyagers only did fly-bys so they didn't have to slow down. Galileo had to perform slow down maneuvers so it could position itself for orbit.

Answer 4

That depends on how far apart Jupiter and earth are at the time.

When both are on the same side of the sun, the closest the two planets can be

from each other is about 391 million miles. When on opposite sides of the sun,

the farthest apart is about 577 million miles.

The corresponding transit-times at light speed are between 35 minutes and 51.6 minutes.

Answer 5

At their closest point Jupiter and earth are about 372 million miles away from each other. Light speed is 186,000 miles per second. It takes light about 33.33 minutes to travel from earth to Jupiter at their closest points.

Answer 6

Like any other trip from one place to another, the time it takes depends on

how fast you travel, what route you take, and how many stops you make.

Since the whole point of this question is to get a feeling for the distance to the sun

and then look at it and say "Wow!", we'll cover those details with a few reasonable

assumptions, and then work the answer out.

Here's what we'll assume:

-- Speed: Let's say 750 miles per hour. That's around the speed of sound at sea level,

about 11 times as fast as a car on the open highway, and about twice as fast as a

typical passenger jet in level cruise.

-- The route: Straight lines are short and fast, but they take way too much energy

for space travel, so spacecraft always travel in big curves that are really parts

of orbits. Energy is no problem for us, so we'll take the shortest route, and fly

straight to the sun.

-- Stops: We won't make any. Just take off from the earth, and keep going at

750 mph straight to the sun.

After our launch, we'll arrive at the sun about 14years 53days later.

Wow!

We'll walk, not run, and form two orderly lines at the rest rooms.

Answer 7

40,000 km/h is 11 km/sec but a journey to Jupiter would not go in a straight line and it would not go at 11 km/sec.

To get to another planet you have to go into a transfer orbit, which means you must have exactly the right speed for the orbit. That way it isn't necessary to burn fuel all the way. It might take 3-5 years during which you might go round the Sun a few times on the way.

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1. Remember that both Jupiter and Earth are moving in elliptical orbits around the Sun, so the distance between Earth and Jupiter changes continuously.

2. Spacecraft do not travel at constant velocities. You begin at zero velocity (relative to the Earth) and accelerate; after a period of coasting, you decelerate to a zero velocity (relative to Jupiter).

3. Sitting still here on Earth, you are ALREADY going at about 66,000 miles per hour relative to the Sun. That's the approximate speed of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun.

4. If you could maintain a constant acceleration of one gravity (32 feet per second, per second), the Moon is only one hour away, and Jupiter is only about 2 weeks away. But you'll reach a much higher max velocity than a mere 40,000 MPH.

Answer 8

Jupiter's orbit is about 5.4 AU from the Sun, which is 5.4 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth. The Earth's distance works out to 500 light-seconds, so Jupiter is approximately 2700 light seconds from the Sun; about 45 light-minutes.

Answer 9

Sunlight takes 40 minutes to reach Janitor.

Answer 10

Jupiter is about 40 light-minutes from the sun.