Green | October 20, 2008 | 29 comments

If the sun went out, how long would life on earth survive?

source: http://www.popsci.com/node/24698

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goldenways
If you put a steamy cup of coffee in the refrigerator, it wouldn’t immediately turn cold. Likewise, if the sun simply “turned off” (which is actually physically impossible), the Earth would stay warm—at least compared with the space surrounding it—for a few million years. But we surface dwellers would feel the chill much sooner than that.

Within a week, the average global surface temperature would drop below 0°F. In a year, it would dip to –100°. The top layers of the oceans would freeze over, but in an apocalyptic irony, that ice would insulate the deep water below and prevent the oceans from freezing solid for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions of years after that, our planet would reach a stable –400°, the temperature at which the heat radiating from the planet’s core would equal the heat that the Earth radiates into space, explains David Stevenson, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology.

Although some microorganisms living in the Earth’s crust would survive, the majority of life would enjoy only a brief post-sun existence. Photosynthesis would halt immediately, and most plants would die in a few weeks. Large trees, however, could survive for several decades, thanks to slow metabolism and substantial sugar stores. With the food chain’s bottom tier knocked out, most animals would die off quickly, but scavengers picking over the dead remains could last until the cold killed them.

Humans could live in submarines in the deepest and warmest parts of the ocean, but a more attractive option might be nuclear- or geothermal-powered habitats. One good place to camp out: Iceland. The island nation already heats 87 percent of its homes using geothermal energy, and, says astronomy professor Eric Blackman of the University of Rochester, people could continue harnessing volcanic heat for hundreds of years.

Of course, the sun doesn’t merely heat the Earth; it also keeps the planet in orbit. If its mass suddenly disappeared (this is equally impossible, by the way), the planet would fly off, like a ball swung on a string and suddenly let go.
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29 comments // If the sun went out, how long would life on earth survive?

  • Gtarfr3ak
    • 0
      Gtarfr3ak  

    • "Earth's fate is unclear. As a red giant, the Sun will have a maximum radius beyond the Earth's current orbit, 1 AU (1.5×1011 m), 250 times the present radius of the Sun.[31] However, by the time it is an asymptotic giant branch star, the Sun will have lost roughly 30% of its present mass due to a stellar wind, so the orbits of the planets will move outward. If it were only for this, Earth would probably be spared, but new research suggests that Earth will be swallowed by the Sun owing to tidal interactions. Even if Earth escapes incineration in the Sun, its water will be boiled away and most of its atmosphere would escape into space. In fact, even during its life in the main sequence, the Sun is gradually becoming more luminous (about 10% every 1 billion years), and its surface temperature is slowly rising. The increase in solar temperatures is such that in about a billion years, the surface of the Earth will become too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life"

      -wikipedia

      1 Billion years and we're all screwed... well.. not 'us'.. but the life on earth then..

    • 3 years ago
  • metalcookiesxy70
  • Mobius2012
  • eldamon
  • bigloutech
  • jonny2times
    • 0
      jonny2times  

    • worst case scenario, sun does out, takes ~10min for last rays of light from the sun to reach earth, so after 10mins we'd all know. people would tear society apart at the seams with their chicken little syndrome.

    • 3 years ago
  • MontaukBeastie
  • 5thElement
    • 0
      5thElement  

    • Well im sure if the sun stopped being sunny, life on earth would go insaine. It would be amazing to see humans pull together but we can't even drive on the same road without getting pissed off at one another.

    • 3 years ago
  • anikhanj
  • Gtarfr3ak
  • petarro
    • 0
      petarro  

    • What's all the fuzz about trying to stay alive? Forget about trying to go to another Planet. Fix this one, Fix it good and live until possible.

    • 3 years ago
  • deeblackangel
  • classic124
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  

    • As much as I want to live in Iceland...

      If the sun went out I would just overdose on herion and die on purpose.

      What a lousy and pointless existence it would be without the sun.

    • 3 years ago
  • mes_s1a
  • phantomleader311
  • DoubleHeadedEagle
  • ninepounds6
  • VTJimO
  • tanyetta
    • 0
      tanyetta  

    • Iceland is like broker than broke right now, well we all are broker than broke, but Iceland is still out beating America when it comes to alternative energy resources.

    • 3 years ago
  • chillwillNJ
  • joshuaheller
  • dirtyemowords
  • tallmansam
  • mcwally
    • 0
      mcwally  

    • most humans would die off within a few days due to heart failure..the sun would not be generating the needed electrical impulse that allows it to beat...unless of course you are a Sentinal..they can survive through nuclear winters..but then thats another story?

    • 3 years ago
  • abbym0308
  • sotanewb
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