How long does sunlight take to reach earth? As you know science calculates distance in space using the speed of light which is 186,000 miles every second. The distance between the sun and earth is 93 millions miles. That means you need to divide 93 million miles by 186,000 (speed of light every second). 93000000 / 186,000 = 500 seconds = 8.33 minutes The above calculation shows that sunlight takes about 8.33 minutes to reach earth. It means the sunlight you get on the earth is indeed released from the sun about 8 minutes ago. [The image is taken from empoweryourknowledgeandhappytrivia.wordpress.com]