Photons do travel in a straight path. To a person observing the photons though they will appear to be curved because of the gravitational field.
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Photons released from the Sun travel through space in a straight line until they interact with matter or are absorbed by particles in the atmosphere. This uninterrupted path is what allows sunlight to reach Earth and provide energy for life on our planet.
The planets around the sun move in a path called an orbit. This orbit is the result of the gravitational pull between the planets and the sun, causing them to travel in a curved path around the sun.
The centripetal force that keeps Earth in orbit around the Sun is caused by the gravitational attraction between Earth and the Sun. This force pulls Earth towards the Sun and prevents it from moving in a straight line, instead forcing it to travel in a curved path around the Sun.
It can take thousands to millions of years for a photon to travel from the core of the Sun to its surface due to the dense interactions and scattering of photons within the Sun's outer layers. Once a photon reaches the surface, it takes only about 8 minutes to travel to Earth.
Light can travel through the vacuum of space because it is composed of massless particles called photons. Photons do not require a medium to propagate, as they continuously move in straight paths at the speed of light. This unique property allows light to travel through the emptiness of space without any obstruction.
Oh, what a lovely question! You see, it may take a bit of time for those sunlight-carrying photons to make their joyous journey from the sun's core to its sparkling surface. Those merry little photons can travel different paths through the sun's intricate layers, but most venture upwards in about 100,000 years or so – they have quite the sightseeing before they beam on out into the vast universe.