Sunlight reflection on planets

In summary, the Sun would go dark at 0:00 from the point of view of Earth-based observers. At that moment, the planets would also go dark, with some variability based on their distance from Earth and our orbital positions. This can be calculated by determining the distance between the Sun and each planet and then dividing by the speed of light.
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mopc
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If the Sunlight lets say would go off, exactly how long would astronomers on Earth still see sunlight reflected on the surface of Mercury, Venus, Mars, the asteroids, Jupiter Saturn, etc.?
If the Sunlight lets say would go off, exactly how long would astronomers on Earth still see sunlight reflected on the surface of Mercury, Venus, Mars, the asteroids, Jupiter Saturn, etc.?

I mean Sun goes dark at 0:00 from the point of view of Earth-based observers. At that exact moment, if they looked at Venus and Mercury, would they still see a few minutes of sunlight reflecting off their surfaces? And the outer planets Jupiter Saturn, Neptune, Pluto?
Or would we just see everything going dark at the same time?

Because if we see the Sun going dark at 0:00, tht means it went dark at 23:52'. Then Mercury and Venus must have gone dark a few minutes later, like 23h53 for Mercury and 23h55 for Venus , but thats in imaginary absoute time, we would see Venus going dark depending on how far Venus is from us + light speed, supposing the Solar System is in the arrangement of today, at what times would we see from Earth the surface of each planet going dark?
 
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You seem to understand how to do the calculation, so all you need is the current locations of the planets. This page discusses data sources, including NASA's Horizons database. I think you just want to set Ephemeris Type to Vector Table, Edit the Coordinate Center to be the sun (you can search for @sun - sorry PF user sun, I can't work out how not to ping you while typing that), Edit the date range, then generate the table for each Target Body. Read off the x,y,z values and apply Pythagoras to get distances, then divide by 300,000 km/s to get delays in seconds.

The first link discusses some python libraries that may make that easier if you know some programming.
 
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mopc said:
I mean Sun goes dark at 0:00 from the point of view of Earth-based observers. At that exact moment, if they looked at Venus and Mercury, would they still see a few minutes of sunlight reflecting off their surfaces? And the outer planets Jupiter Saturn, Neptune, Pluto?
Or would we just see everything going dark at the same time?
We would see the Sun go out first, then the planets would go dark. This is because sunlight from the Sun travels a straight line to us and thus a shorter distance than the sunlight that ends up getting reflected from each planet to us. The time taken would be the sum of the distances from the Sun to a planet and then from the planet to Earth divided by the speed of light. For example, Mercury and Venus would taken anywhere from an extra few seconds to an extra minute or two depending on where they are in their orbits (rough guess, I haven't done the math). The planets outside of Earth's orbit would also show some variability based on our orbital positions.
 
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What is sunlight reflection?

Sunlight reflection is the phenomenon of light bouncing off the surface of an object and being redirected in a different direction.

Why do planets reflect sunlight?

Planets reflect sunlight because they have a solid surface that is made up of materials that are capable of reflecting light. These materials include ice, rocks, and minerals.

Which planets have the highest sunlight reflection?

The planets with the highest sunlight reflection are Venus, Earth, and Mars. This is because they have a solid surface with a high percentage of reflective materials.

How does sunlight reflection affect the temperature of a planet?

Sunlight reflection plays a significant role in the temperature of a planet. A planet with a high sunlight reflection will absorb less heat from the sun, resulting in a cooler temperature. On the other hand, a planet with a low sunlight reflection will absorb more heat, leading to a warmer temperature.

Can we measure the sunlight reflection on other planets?

Yes, we can measure the sunlight reflection on other planets using specialized instruments such as spectrometers and radiometers. These instruments can detect the amount of light reflected by a planet and provide valuable information about its surface composition and temperature.

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