The speed of light is slower than we thought?

An American scientist claimed to have found evidence that the speed of light described by Einstein's general theory of relativity was slower than the long-held assumption.

According to general relativity, light travels at 299,792,458m / sec in a vacuum.

Meanwhile, physicist James Franson of the University of Maryland (USA) provides evidence that he thinks that the speed of light must be slower than the above.

Supernova SN 1987A - (Photo: NASA)

Expert Franson based on information obtained from supernova observation SN 1987A , exploded in 1987, according to Earth.com, according to Space.com.

Researchers on Earth captured photons and neutrinos from the explosion, but photons arrived 4.7 hours later than expected, and at the time scientists thought this delay could be is due to photons coming from another source.

However, Franson recently suggested that the reason may be that light slows down because the photon has a vacuum polarization , only the state that a photon separates into positrons and electrons in a very short time before recurrence combine into the same photon.

This will create a gravitational difference between charged pairs, leading to small energy impacts when they combine, enough to delay travel time.

The separation and coalescence can occur many times with many other photons during the 168,000 light-year journey, the distance between Earth and SN 1987A, resulting in a 4.7-hour delay.