What Would Happen If The Sun Went Out?!

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Did you know that the sun produces the same amount of energy as 100 billion hydrogen bombs every second?? That’s just enough to keep us nice and alive. From never-ending nights to plummeting temperatures, here are 8 things that would happen if the sun went out…. 8. Eternal Darkness While you may think this question is silly, Albert Einstein believed it to be an important thought experiment. What would happen if the sun went out?? The first thing is that the world would go dark! Interestingly, because the sun is so densely packed with elements, Photons created within the sun’s core actually take as little as 4,000 years, and as many as hundreds of thousands of years to reach the sun’s surface. From there it’s clear space, though, and it then takes light about 8 minutes to reach us on earth. If the sun were to suddenly go out, the light that’s already travelling at 671 million miles per hour, would take about 8 minutes to reach the Earth. This doesn’t, however, mean that we’d have any time to prepare. Light is the fastest known travelling thing in the universe, so we’d have no way of knowing that the sun has vanished before everything goes dark. It would feel like night time across the entire planet. Luckily we’d still have electricity supplies so we would be able to artificially illuminate our homes and cities in the same way as we do during nighttime already. It would all be dark, but we would have light as long as the power lasted. Not all that comforting. 7. Gravity Would Disappear Scientists originally thought that gravity was instant. As soon as the sun went out, we would have zero gravity and the Sun’s gravitational pull on the earth would stop as soon as the sun wasn’t there any more. The first thing we would notice would be the loss of gravity, then light. However, Einstein proved this to be incorrect. His theory of general relativity showed that gravity has a speed, and it’s the same as that of light. So technically, if the sun were to disappear right now, we would still continue to orbit its position for a further 8 minutes before things got weird. Gravity essentially means that the earth is constantly falling towards the sun, but the Earth’s momentum stops us from heading directly towards it- instead we are on a very gradual spiral. The moment that the sun’s gravitational effect stops applying to the earth, the planet will retain its momentum and continue in a straight line through space. The actual consequence of this happening would be unknown, because all other objects in the solar system would also suffer the same fate. Each planet and object would be released at different times because of their distance away from the sun, so would be sent on wildly different trajectories. It’s quite possible, then, that the earth would collide with another planet or chunk of space debris. Or it would simply travel off into the depths of space forever. And it would be really, really cold. 6. The Moon and Planets Would Be Invisible The night sky is covered in different sources of light- from the nearest objects such as the moon and other planets, to stars that are billions of light years away from us. Those objects with their own light sources, such as distant stars, will continue to shine like they always have done, but the objects that are closer to us will go out one by one. The reason for this is that those within our solar system are only visible to us because of the light that shine on them by the sun, and then is reflected back to us. The moon would be the first to disappear from our night sky, and this would happen within seconds of us losing direct light from the sun. The other planets, though, would take a little longer to go. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are visible by the naked eye from Earth. Mercury and Venus, being closer to the sun than us, would take a relatively short time before they were no longer visible- depending on the position of their orbit this could take up to 20 minutes. Mars will still twinkle in the sky for up to half an hour after the sun goes out, while Jupiter will remain for up to 90 minutes, and Saturn for as long as 2 and a half hours. Even Pluto, on the edge of our solar system that can only be viewed through telescopes, would no longer be visible within half a day. 5. Temperatures Will Drop As well as being the primary source of light to our planet, the sun is also the main source of surface heat. The moment its rays stop reaching us, the planet will begin to cool. This won’t be as immediate as the light vanishing, though, because the earth’s atmosphere retains heat rather effectively. In fact, in comparison with the very cold objects in space, Earth will stay relatively warm for millions of years. Of course, this would be of no help to us living here. Within a week of the sun going out, the surface temperatures on earth would be around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, or -17 degrees Celsius, and within a year this would have fallen much further to around -324 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about -198 degrees Celsius. The temperature will continue to drop, and the only warmth on the planet will be provided by the molten core. It’s thought that if the earth were only being heated by geothermal vents from the core, then the temperature would level out at about -400 degrees Fahrenheit. This means about -240 degrees Celsius on the surface after a few hundred years. The surface of the Earth would be frozen, leaving a liquid ocean underneath. If we survived this, our only hope would be to somehow create underwater cities near these geothermal vents on the ocean floor. 4. Plants Would Die Plants are the fundamental food source on earth, and the moment that light stops reaching us after 8 minutes, their ability to produce nutrients through photosynthesis will end. This won’t immediately kill the plants, though, because when it’s dark they breathe oxygen like every other organism. They will all enter this state, which means they will begin to use up all of their energy supplies and then, eventually, die. The smaller plant species won’t survive more than a few days, although others may survive for weeks. Virtually all vegetation will have died within months, though, with the exception of some of the largest trees. They have such large food stores, and are so resistant to cold temperatures, that they could potentially survive for decades before finally succumbing to the effects of the sun going out. However, it would be hard for them to withstand the negative 150 Fahrenheit after the first year... 3. Animal Life Would Die The combination of the lack of light and lack of warmth would certainly spell the end for most species on Earth- especially since there would be no more vegetation for food sources. Soon, animals that rely on plants will die, and predators will, themselves, run out of food and die as well. The only species that will last longer are the scavengers, who will likely have large enough sources of food because everything else has died, that they will be able to survive until it gets too cold for them to live. There are exceptions to this, because not every organism on earth relies on the sun. Microorganisms that live close to the Earth’s core, or in volcanic vents in the oceans, won’t notice any difference at all, and could continue to live for millions if not billions of years. Interestingly enough, this frozen Earth would be similar to the moons around Jupiter. Astronomers believe they could also have microbes living in their frozen waters. As humans, the sun going out won’t necessarily mean the end for all of us. Those that are prepared or fortunate enough will be able to survive. If you assume that we can get enough food, it would be possible to live in submarines in the deepest and warmest parts of the oceans, or even live in contained habitats that are powered by nuclear or geothermal energy. In Iceland, for example, they already use geothermal energy to heat 87 per cent of their homes, and this is a power source that will remain available for hundreds of years after the sun has gone out. 2. The Ocean Surface Would Freeze You might expect that the water on earth would freeze pretty soon after the temperatures plummeted, but water’s propensity for retaining heat means that this will take quite a long time. For sure, the rivers, lakes, and ponds would freeze in a matter of weeks. It’s a different story for the oceans, though. Within a few months of the sun going out, they will be covered in a layer of ice, but this insulation will further contain the heat within the water beneath it, and it will take at least a thousand years to fully solidify. This will make it possible for organisms to survive in the deepest and warmest parts of the ocean. Like I mentioned before, Earth will begin to resemble distant worlds and moons such as Europa, that are believed to have large bodies of water beneath their icy crust. Underground water deposits will also take longer before they completely freeze. Some, like hot springs, are kept warm by volcanic processes, and these would continue to freely flow for as long as the heat from the earth’s core was able to reach them. This could also lead to the build-up of pressure beneath frozen water on the surface, and result in massive geysers where the water breaks through. Similar effects have been seen elsewhere in the solar system, and this would contribute to further layers of ice being formed on the surface. 1. The Atmosphere Would Freeze Once the oceans have fully frozen, and temperatures on earth have plummeted to around -400 degrees Fahrenheit, the planet will be like virtually any other piece of rock that hurls through the depths of space. The one thing that would be distinguish it from other planets is its atmosphere, but even this will go out in about 1,000 years. Rather than simply venting into outer space, the lowering temperatures will cause the atmosphere to freeze. Water molecules would have already long been gone by the time this happens, but the rest is mainly made up of Nitrogen, which has a freezing point of -346 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s likely that most of the atmosphere would turn to snow, and fall to the ground- covering the earth in a thick blanket, which would be similar in colour to the snow we see on mountains today. There would, however, no longer be oxygen in the environment, so any life that had miraculously managed to survive until this point would quickly die out, with nowhere left to seek refuge. In total there’s about 5000 trillion metric tons of atmosphere around the planet. Assuming the snow it formed was of the same thickness and density of water snow, it would cover the entire earth with a snowdrift that was more than 300 feet deep. This would remain in place, undisturbed by weather effects because there’s no longer an atmosphere, but become exposed to the radiation and collisions that our atmosphere protects us from. The planet would soon be riddled with craters from the impacts of meteors. All in all, Earth would be just another frozen ball hurling through space at 67,000 miles per hour. Maybe it would get pulled into orbit by another star, or even a black hole. Whatever the case, it would be quite the adventure! Thanks for watching! Remember to subscribe and see you soon! Byeeee
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Channel: Origins Explained
Views: 179,593
Rating: 4.733428 out of 5
Keywords: origins explained, what would happen, sun went out, what if the sun disappeared, sun disappeared, what if the sun exploded, no sun, solar system, the sun, end of the world, what if, what would happen if the sun went out, sun died, no more sun, if the sun stopped shining, sun goes out, sun died out, sun burns out, facts about space, facts about the universe, facts about our planet, facts about the sun, top, top 10, top ten, top most, list, facts, origins explained top 10
Id: ydO1y5P6Wa4
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Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)
Published: Thu Jul 12 2018
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