# Still Thinking About Knee Deep in Photons

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-thinking-about-knee-deep-in-photons/725465>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 17, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-thinking-about-knee-deep-in-photons/725465 "2015-07-17T22:47:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bowlweevils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e5b9ba/32.png) [@bowlweevils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bowlweevils)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-thinking-about-knee-deep-in-photons/725465/1 "2015-07-17T22:47:11Z")

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Son ain’t been shining for 15 billion years (that’s milliards for you who know what one is). Son is 4.57 billion years old.

Big Bang is currently reckoned to have happened 13.7 billion years ago, and was mostly a dark place with no stars for the next 400 million years.

That cuts your photon problem by at least 70%

Link to question below, question is way down at the bottom.

[http://tinyurl.com/nwq3724](http://tinyurl.com/nwq3724)

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-thinking-about-knee-deep-in-photons/725465/2 "2015-07-17T22:59:08Z")

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More direct link to Cecil’s column in question:

[Is Mexican vanilla toxic? Plus: What happens if you microwave the popcorn upside down?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2328/is-mexican-vanilla-toxic-plus) in the “Questions We’re Still Thinking About” paragraph towards the end. TL;DR: We _are_ knee-deep – actually, universe-deep – in photons, just rather sparsely distributed on the average.