(ORDO NEWS) — Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation (EM radiation), and theory shows that the mass of photons that make up light is related to the range of EM radiation.
If, as most scientists believe, electromagnetic radiation has an infinite range, then photons must be massless.
In addition to the fact that photons are massless particles, they also exist only when moving at the speed of light.
Therefore, when the light source is turned off in the room, the photons are instantly absorbed by the surrounding objects, and darkness sets in.
It turns out that light has no mass. But!
However, light has energy, and so, based on Albert Einstein’s famous equation E = mc2, light can behave as if it had mass.
The clearest evidence of this feature of light is the experimental spacecraft LightSail-2 , which flies on a solar sail.
Solar sail is a technology that uses the pressure of sunlight (stellar) light on a mirror surface in order to propel a spacecraft.
Naturally, the area of such a sail should be tens of square meters – in the case of the tiny LightSail-2, the sail area was 32 square meters.
When the solar sail opens, the stream of photons immediately hits its surface and “bounces” (like a ball from a wall), setting the device in motion. The next stream of photons is even more speed.
And all this happens under the condition that light has no mass. Magic of the Universe.
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