If you sit here on Earth and shine a light or a radar signal at Mars, it takes
anywhere between 3.2 minutes to 22.2 minutes to hit Mars, depending on
where the Earth and Mars are in their respective orbits.
If you're talking about a person or a machine traveling to Mars at light speed,
then it would take a 10-page paper to discuss the question.
Just to give you an example of the kind of problems it raises: How could you measure
the length of time the trip took ?
-- The clock carried by the traveler and the clock kept by his family on Earth would read
different lengths of time for the trip. According to the best Physics we have, there's no
such thing as "the real time", and they would both be correct.
-- When the traveler got to Mars, and radioed back to let his family know that
he had landed safely, and to ask them how much time had passed on their clock,
it would take between 3.2 and 22.2 minutes for the message to reach them,
and another 3.2 to 22.2 minutes for their reply to return to the traveler.
At Mars' closest approach to earth, about 4 light-minutes, or 0.00267 light-days (rounded).
When Mars is as close to Earth as it can possibly be, and if it were possible to travel in a straight line all the way there, the trip would take you about 72 million kilometers. The distance would not depend on your speed.
It takes light about 3 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth when the two planets are at their closest distance, which is about 54.6 million kilometers. At their farthest distance, which is about 401 million kilometers, it takes light about 22 minutes to reach Earth from Mars.
It depends on where Earth and Mars are in their orbits. Since Mars takes longer to orbit the sun than Earth does the distance between the two planets varies considerably. When Earth and Mars are closest a beam of light will take about 4 minutes to reach Mars from Earth. When they are farthest (on opposite sides of the sun) a bean of light would take about 12 minutes.
At a distance of 56 million kilometers, light requires 3.1 minutes to reach Mars from Earth.
Well traveling at the speed of light would take 4 minutes, so if you want to convert that to years...have fun :)
*The speed of light in TV signals is 186,282 miles/second. 130,000,000 miles(the distance between Mars and Earth)_______________________________________________ = 697.87 seconds 186, 282 miles/ second (the speed of light) (697.87seconds is about 698 seconds, which is about 12 minutes (11.633333333333333 minutes).
The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second or 300,000 kilometers per second. It takes sunlight about 13 minutes to reach Mars. It takes about 81/2 minutes to reach Earth.
Mars has a similar rotation speed as the Earth - 24 hours and 38 minutes.
At Mars' closest approach to earth, about 4 light-minutes, or 0.00267 light-days (rounded).
Minutes are a unit of time, not of distance. Perhaps you mean LIGHT minutes, which refer to the distance light travels in a minute. Earth is 1 AU from the sun, which takes light about 8 minutes and 20 seconds. Mars is about 1.5 AU, so when earth and Mars are on the same side of the sun, the distance between them is 0.5 AU. Light would take four minutes, 10 seconds to cross that gap. When Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun, the distance between them is 2.5 AU, which would take light nearly 21 minutes to cross. On average, Earth and Mars would be at roughly right angles to the sun, so you could use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the distance of their hypotenuse: About 1.8 AU. I'll leave the conversion of this into light time as an exercise for the gentle reader.
2 minutes
When Mars is as close to Earth as it can possibly be, and if it were possible to travel in a straight line all the way there, the trip would take you about 72 million kilometers. The distance would not depend on your speed.
It takes light about 3 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth when the two planets are at their closest distance, which is about 54.6 million kilometers. At their farthest distance, which is about 401 million kilometers, it takes light about 22 minutes to reach Earth from Mars.
From where ? ? ? From the sun: 12min 40sec From the earth when Mars is closest: 4min 21sec From the earth when Mars is farthest: 20min 59sec
It depends on where Earth and Mars are in their orbits. Since Mars takes longer to orbit the sun than Earth does the distance between the two planets varies considerably. When Earth and Mars are closest a beam of light will take about 4 minutes to reach Mars from Earth. When they are farthest (on opposite sides of the sun) a bean of light would take about 12 minutes.
At a distance of 56 million kilometers, light requires 3.1 minutes to reach Mars from Earth.