What happens to a photon of light as it travels through space and time?

In the context of starlight, the light travels through space for millions of years acting like a wave, and then acts like a collection of particles when hitting the photon detector, the telescope, or an eye. Each photon therefore collapses from mostly wave-like to mostly particle-like upon being detected.

Do we travel through time at the speed of light?

Our speed through spacetime is constant. The more we move through space, the less through time and vice versa. Everything travels through spacetime at the speed of light. We all travel at exactly the speed of light through spacetime.

At what speed are we Travelling through time?

1 second per second
The Short Answer: And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

Why does everything travel at the speed of light?

Ergo, light is made of electromagnetic waves and it travels at that speed, because that is exactly how quickly waves of electricity and magnetism travel through space. With his special theory of relativity, Einstein realized the true connection between time and space, a unified fabric known as space-time.

Can objects travel faster-than-light?

Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity famously dictates that no known object can travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum, which is 299,792 km/s. Unlike objects within space–time, space–time itself can bend, expand or warp at any speed.

What happens when an object travels faster-than-light?

Special relativity states that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. If something were to exceed this limit, it would move backward in time, according to the theory. Physicists suggest such an ability, if it really existed, could be used to send neutrinos back in time to deliver messages.

Is it possible to travel at the speed of light?

Yes, I agree with David. If somehow, you were able to travel at the speed of light, it would seem that ‘your time’ would not have progressed in comparison to your reference time once you returned to ‘normal’ speeds. This can be modeled by the Lorentz time dilation equation:

What happens to the length of a photon when it travels?

When the photons move through space at the maximum speed of light with no part in the time-component, they will also experience a maximum length contraction. All the distance they travel through will be contracted down to a single point.

Why does time freeze at the speed of light?

The reason some people will say that time freezes at the speed of light is that it’s possible to take two points on any path going through spacetime at less than the speed of light and calculate the amount of time that a particle would experience as it travels between those points along that path.

Do particles with mass travel at the speed of light?

All massless particles travel at the speed of light, including the photon, gluon and gravitational waves, which carry the electromagnetic, strong nuclear and gravitational interactions, respectively. Particles with mass must always travel at speeds below the speed of light, and there’s an even more restrictive cutoff in our Universe.