Question

I came to this question while thinking about light with extreme wavelengths. Say we had light (em radiation) with a wavelength of 100's of thousands of kilometres and we absorbed a photon of it on earth (perhaps technically very difficult) would the possibility of that photon being detected on the moon disappear instantly or only a second or so later?

Answer 1

The possibility of a photon being detected on the moon would cease as soon as the photon is absorbed on Earth, but this change in information would reach the moon at the speed of light, approximately 1.3 seconds later.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question you're asking involves understanding the behavior of extremely long-wavelength electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with matter. When a photon is absorbed by an object on Earth, the information about that photon's existence, such as the possibility of it being detected elsewhere like on the moon, cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Therefore, the possibility of that photon being detected on the Moon would indeed disappear, but only after the information reaches there at the speed of light, which takes about 1.3 seconds. The behavior of light and photons falls under the purview of the field of Physics.