The speed of light is about 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second, and the Sun is about 92.58 million miles (149 million kilometers) away, so it takes sunlight 8.4 minutes to reach our planet. Therefore, the Sun we see in the sky is actually as the star appeared over eight minutes ago! Not to paint too depressing a picture, but if the Sun went nova, no one on Earth would realize the end was near for eight and a half minutes.