Here's why:

* Speed of light: Light travels at an incredible speed of approximately 299,792 kilometers per second (186,282 miles per second).

* Distance to the Sun: The Sun is about 149.6 million kilometers (93 million miles) away from Earth.

* Time calculation: Dividing the distance to the Sun by the speed of light gives us the time it takes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth:

* 149.6 million km / 299,792 km/s = 499 seconds

* 499 seconds / 60 seconds/minute = 8.32 minutes

So, the light we see from the Sun left the Sun's surface about 8 minutes and 20 seconds ago.