Actually when the sun burns out you'll have less than 8 minutes. Because when a star the size of the sun runs out of it's fuel (can't remember if it's hydrogen, helium, or both), it expands.
And if the sun expands at all, we'll be out of that very small "life-supporting temperatures" zone pretty quickly.
That may be true, but the thread title is "If the sun were to suddenly burn out"
So my answer was directed more or less at a situation in which the sun suddenly stopped shining.
EDIT: Looks like everyone is an astronomy professor here. :tongue.gif:
That may be true, but the thread title is "If the sun were to suddenly burn out"
So my answer was directed more or less at a situation in which the sun suddenly stopped shining.
True.
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"Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce; We will send unto them... only you."
Colored text indicates in-character statements/actions. Because Forum Games has basically just been a big open RP for a long time now and it's the only place I ever post anymore, when I post at all.
It would take months, even years for no sunlight to directly affect us.
It would kill the plants first, and with that many animals would die out from lack of food, and with those animals carnivorous animals would die out as well and so on. Our crops would completely be ruined and we'd have to fund new ways to grow food in farms. There would be food shortages, and with that wars.
We'd most likely die from starvation/famine and killing each other before actually dying from lack of exposure to direct sunlight.
The Earth is going to turn into a floating chunk of ice...
OT
sex. For once.
All of us would continue to do exactly what we would otherwise because there would be no way for anybody on Earth to know that the sun burned out at all.
Also, Not all stars "explode" when they burn out. That's nonsense. The stars that explode- and go Super Nova- are the much heavier stars. The Sun is a star on the main sequence and judging from observations of other stars of similar mass and magnitude that have died it is most likely the sun is going to go Supergiant- encompassing the orbits of Earth and mars within it's corona, burning off the atmosphere, all life on Earth will die at that point, and what is left of the earth will proceed to be dimly illuminated by the dying husk of the sun after it shrinks to a white dwarf, losing a good portion of it's outer surface layers to space - which could I suppose be called an explosion - when the various nuclear reactions taking place proceed to slow down to a point that gravity overcomes them. This isn't slated to happen for another 4.5 Billion years. It's unlikely that Humans will be around then, though.
Ok, this is where I tell you that THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS!
The thread is if it suddenly stopped working, not in it naturally did...
If the sun suddenly stopped working, I'd just fly up to it and install a new lightbulb.
We seem to be making up new physics for this event, so it'll work. Trust me.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce; We will send unto them... only you."
Colored text indicates in-character statements/actions. Because Forum Games has basically just been a big open RP for a long time now and it's the only place I ever post anymore, when I post at all.
you're all forgetting something, that's the amount of time it takes light to travel, so you wouldn't know until you were already dead from the solar flare.
*Smashes head into keyboard repeatedly*
You know that's not how stars work.
I know that, but his question isn't following how stars work either.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce; We will send unto them... only you."
Colored text indicates in-character statements/actions. Because Forum Games has basically just been a big open RP for a long time now and it's the only place I ever post anymore, when I post at all.
I'm sure NASA has some satellites orbiting the sun. Most likely if it did go out, NASA and the U.S government wouldn't tell anyone so as to avoid MASS PANIC.
I'm sure NASA has some satellites orbiting the sun. Most likely if it did go out, NASA and the U.S government wouldn't tell anyone so as to avoid MASS PANIC.
but how would we know the sun went out?
you're not thinking this through, are you? you even contradicted yourself.
I'm sure NASA has some satellites orbiting the sun. Most likely if it did go out, NASA and the U.S government wouldn't tell anyone so as to avoid MASS PANIC.
Pro Tip: The electromagnetic radiation used to convey the data from the satellites would travel the same speed as light, so NASA would get data from the satellites about this either:
A. As we witnessed the darkness on earth, or
B. After we witnessed the darkness on earth.
Or at least, that's what I figure based on what they teach in Chemistry class.
"Against all the evil that Hell can conjure, all the wickedness that mankind can produce; We will send unto them... only you."
Colored text indicates in-character statements/actions. Because Forum Games has basically just been a big open RP for a long time now and it's the only place I ever post anymore, when I post at all.
Pro Tip: The electromagnetic radiation used to convey the data from the satellites would travel the same speed as light, so NASA would get data from the satellites about this either:
A. As we witnessed the darkness on earth, or
B. After we witnessed the darkness on earth.
Oh crap you're right. Damn, we really wouldn't know at all. Not even the higher ups. I'm still sticking to apocalypse sex though.
It would take months, even years for no sunlight to directly affect us.
bahaha...
If the sun were to suddenly stop shining, we wouldn't last more than a few days. Well, we might, but we would have to change a lot.
As it is now, over 90% of the energy we use on Earth either directly or indirectly comes from the sun. (fossil fuels, for example). And of course, all of the heat energy in the atmosphere comes from the sun. A warm night is only a warm night because it follows a warm day. Without a sun, it won't take more than a few days- given the state of the atmosphere as it is now- to drop to temperatures in the -100 or so range. Our only hope would be to dig deep caves close to the earths mantle from which to draw our energy, since without the sun, the earth itself will be our only source of energy for anything at all. We could try to stave off the pending inhabitable surface by trying to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses but I don't think we'd be able to buy enough carbon offsets to save the world (:tongue.gif:) even if we did, it just staves off the inevitable. Without any radiant heat reaching Earth, surface temperatures will drop drastically, the only thing keeping any heat in is the atmosphere, and it's not the thick carbon dioxide electric blanket that environmentalists want us to believe. Consider how quickly it can turn from a hot day to a cold night in a desert- the only thing that softens the change in most climates is humidity, but that will only soften the start of the infinite night, and eventually temperatures will get low enough to simply freeze the water vapour and make the humidity effectively 0.
It would kill the plants first,
the plants would be killed by a killing frost long before they die from lack of food. (photosynthesis). Same with most animals.
Our crops would completely be ruined and we'd have to fund new ways to grow food in farms. There would be food shortages, and with that wars.
There wouldn't be time. There would be no way to grow food on farms, either. The only other way to produce light is via electricity, which is generated in power plants. The infrastructure to setup a nuclear powered yet agrarian society couldn't come to be fast enough. We're talking maybe a week before temperatures drop to inhabitable levels.
We'd most likely die from starvation/famine and killing each other before actually dying from lack of exposure to direct sunlight.
Of course we wouldn't die from lack of exposure to direct sunlight. The fact is, the sun is the source of nearly ALL of the energy we use on earth- either directly, or indirectly. The only other source of energy is the Earth itself, which would be the only alternative. Fact is, the surface would become hostile to living things way to fast for either the creation of a nuclear powered agriculture (nuclear power being the only power source that doesn't indirectly rely on the sun) and there might not even be time to coordinate an effort to move civilization to extremely deep caves in the earth, where geothermal energy could be harnessed to create light to grow crops and raise animals underground.
That may be true, but the thread title is "If the sun were to suddenly burn out"
So my answer was directed more or less at a situation in which the sun suddenly stopped shining.
EDIT: Looks like everyone is an astronomy professor here. :tongue.gif:
True.
The Earth is going to turn into a floating chunk of ice...
OT
sex. For once.
All of us would continue to do exactly what we would otherwise because there would be no way for anybody on Earth to know that the sun burned out at all.
Also, Not all stars "explode" when they burn out. That's nonsense. The stars that explode- and go Super Nova- are the much heavier stars. The Sun is a star on the main sequence and judging from observations of other stars of similar mass and magnitude that have died it is most likely the sun is going to go Supergiant- encompassing the orbits of Earth and mars within it's corona, burning off the atmosphere, all life on Earth will die at that point, and what is left of the earth will proceed to be dimly illuminated by the dying husk of the sun after it shrinks to a white dwarf, losing a good portion of it's outer surface layers to space - which could I suppose be called an explosion - when the various nuclear reactions taking place proceed to slow down to a point that gravity overcomes them. This isn't slated to happen for another 4.5 Billion years. It's unlikely that Humans will be around then, though.
Ok, this is where I tell you that THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS!
The thread is if it suddenly stopped working, not in it naturally did...
The sun inflates sorry.
Jeez. :dry.gif:
If the sun suddenly stopped working, I'd just fly up to it and install a new lightbulb.
We seem to be making up new physics for this event, so it'll work. Trust me.
*Smashes head into keyboard repeatedly*
You know that's not how stars work.
Have sex with ALL the attractive people?
Eat ALL the things?
Take off ALL the clothes?
Pay for nothing.
Generally not give a ****.
and once I feel my self starting to slip. Start confessing to the gods just in case I'm wrong. And then meditate until I died.
Or if the sun went nova, well Id die. Like everything else.
Now that being said. Ponies.
I know that, but his question isn't following how stars work either.
I'm sure NASA has some satellites orbiting the sun. Most likely if it did go out, NASA and the U.S government wouldn't tell anyone so as to avoid MASS PANIC.
but how would we know the sun went out?
you're not thinking this through, are you? you even contradicted yourself.
Double post sorry.
Pro Tip: The electromagnetic radiation used to convey the data from the satellites would travel the same speed as light, so NASA would get data from the satellites about this either:
A. As we witnessed the darkness on earth, or
B. After we witnessed the darkness on earth.
Or at least, that's what I figure based on what they teach in Chemistry class.
Oh crap you're right. Damn, we really wouldn't know at all. Not even the higher ups. I'm still sticking to apocalypse sex though.
bahaha...
If the sun were to suddenly stop shining, we wouldn't last more than a few days. Well, we might, but we would have to change a lot.
As it is now, over 90% of the energy we use on Earth either directly or indirectly comes from the sun. (fossil fuels, for example). And of course, all of the heat energy in the atmosphere comes from the sun. A warm night is only a warm night because it follows a warm day. Without a sun, it won't take more than a few days- given the state of the atmosphere as it is now- to drop to temperatures in the -100 or so range. Our only hope would be to dig deep caves close to the earths mantle from which to draw our energy, since without the sun, the earth itself will be our only source of energy for anything at all. We could try to stave off the pending inhabitable surface by trying to fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses but I don't think we'd be able to buy enough carbon offsets to save the world (:tongue.gif:) even if we did, it just staves off the inevitable. Without any radiant heat reaching Earth, surface temperatures will drop drastically, the only thing keeping any heat in is the atmosphere, and it's not the thick carbon dioxide electric blanket that environmentalists want us to believe. Consider how quickly it can turn from a hot day to a cold night in a desert- the only thing that softens the change in most climates is humidity, but that will only soften the start of the infinite night, and eventually temperatures will get low enough to simply freeze the water vapour and make the humidity effectively 0.
the plants would be killed by a killing frost long before they die from lack of food. (photosynthesis). Same with most animals.
There wouldn't be time. There would be no way to grow food on farms, either. The only other way to produce light is via electricity, which is generated in power plants. The infrastructure to setup a nuclear powered yet agrarian society couldn't come to be fast enough. We're talking maybe a week before temperatures drop to inhabitable levels.
Of course we wouldn't die from lack of exposure to direct sunlight. The fact is, the sun is the source of nearly ALL of the energy we use on earth- either directly, or indirectly. The only other source of energy is the Earth itself, which would be the only alternative. Fact is, the surface would become hostile to living things way to fast for either the creation of a nuclear powered agriculture (nuclear power being the only power source that doesn't indirectly rely on the sun) and there might not even be time to coordinate an effort to move civilization to extremely deep caves in the earth, where geothermal energy could be harnessed to create light to grow crops and raise animals underground.