The Sun.
Our fiery beautiful life source.
Without it, life on planet earth would never have evolved.
From it, we take heat, solar energy and vitamin D. But what would happen if the Queen Bee
of our Solar System disappeared?
Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, the channel that looks to answer
a number of queries ranging from the downright insane to the sometimes pretty reasonable!
I am your host, Rebecca Felgate and today I am asking – What if the Sun disappeared
in 7 days?
Before we get into all that drama, drama…I want to ask you what you would do if you knew
you only had 7 days left on earth?
What a loaded question!
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a thumbs up.
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So, if the sun disappeared…in 7 days.
Woah.
For a moment lets just ignore the how and why and address what if part of our question.
If the sun went out today, right now, in this very second, it would take between eight and
eight and a half minutes for us to realise.
The sun is 93 million miles away and light can only travel so fast…at the speed of
light not so coincidentally.
Our death blow would take almost ten minutes to reach us…which is time enough to watch
this video, pop the kettle on, eat a sandwich… however you’d like to spend the last 8 minutes
of your life.
I suppose what would happen during and after those eight minutes would depend on whether
or not we saw it coming.
If we knew the sun was about to die in 7 days there would be utter chaos – which may be
a reason for any scientists who may have seen it coming not to tell us.
At this point I suppose it is a question of ethics.
Do we have a right to know our fate and does knowing we have a week to live make the end
better or worse?
While knowing a had a week to the apocalypse would be a good heads up for me and time enough
to travel back to England to my family, the chances are everyone on the planet would be
in a state of flux and the airports would be closed down anyway.
If people knew there were just 7 days, would there not be anarchy?
So what would happen one week and 8 minutes in when the moment the sun disappeared for
us?
Not only would it take 8 minutes for light and heat to disappear, but it would also take
8 minutes for our earth to stop orbiting the spot where the sun used to be.
After that we will be flung off in a straight line… as will all other planets in our solar
system, so lets hope we don’t smash into them.
The big question is can we survive without the sun?
While things would be pretty and very literally dark, we wouldn’t just die straight away.
The first week would be alright – global temperatures would drop to 0 degrees celcius,
which we can cope with with shelter.
But yes, we know most animal life needs warmth.
Electricity would continue so long as it was still being generated, so we may be able to
heat ourselves sufficiently for a while, but we would need a plan and fast, as within a
year global temperatures would drop to minus 100 degrees Celsius.
There is heat to be found at the core of our planet, but it is hard to drill that far down,
although going underground may be our only option.
We could all try and move to Iceland and harness their geothermic energy, but whether that
would sustain us, I don’t know.
Within months the oceans would freeze, trees would freeze, our cities would be trapped
beneath vast sheets of ice.
While plant life would stop photosynthesising after the 8 minutes and die out within a week,
we still have enough oxygen on earth for about 1000 years, so long as it doesn’t freeze…although
it likely would.
So basically, the earth would be a frozen tundra with the only life being Micoorganisms
who survive in the small amount of liquid water at the bottom of the oceans near hydrothermal
vents.
Fun.
But there is a silver lining – in around 43 thousand years earth would reach the next
nearest star, 4.3 light years away…if we started orbiting that, maybe the grand deep
thaw would begin and the microorganisms who survive would start evolving… but I have
to say..,unless we meet alien neighbour mates who can revive our cold dead frozen corpses…it
isn’t looking great for humans.
BUT of course we know that the sun can’t really just go out.
Even if it stopped fusing hydrogen suddenly and unpredictably – it would take about
10,000 years for us to realise….during which time civilisations could rise and fall.
After that, we would gradually start to succumb to its lowering temperature.
We already know the suns fate, and it isn’t what we have discussed so far.
What is actually going to happen is this.
We know that nothing lasts for ever, and that our sun really will go out, so to speak, one
day – although that is different to disappearing.
Even to say it simply will go out is pretty flippant….
The sun isn’t a switch we can turn on or off, but a energy source bigger than we can
imagine, that will one day start to deplete.
In reality, the process of the sun going out takes billions of years.
The sun is in the middle of its life phase.
In around 5 billion years time it will have made its dramatic final demise.
Things will start to kick off in the next billion years – in 1.1 billion years the
sun will have expanded by 10%, making its rays hotter and brighter to the earth.
This is the point where, if there is life as we know it still left on earth – it will
bow out as the oceans boil and the earth is irreparably scortched.
In 3.5 billion years, the sun will be 40% brighter, then, eventually it will reach full
red giant stage.
This process from start to finish can take a few billion years, but when the sun is done
being a red giant, it will begin the planetary nebula phase, which lasts tens of thousands
of years and sees the sun shed a glowing shell of hot gas.
After this, only the core will remain, and while it is hot, it is called a white dwarf
star, but eventually, when it is cool it will be a black dwarf – a cold rock floating
in space.
SO….sun chat!
What a great time!
I kind of enjoyed this video!
I hope you did too!
Either way, let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below!
Also don’t forget to let me know what you would do if you had seven days left to live!
Eeek.
– Notification bell.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate.
I am going to get out of here to enjoy this beautiful sunny day – so I’ll catch you
in the next video.
Until then, stay curious, stay alert and never ever stop questioning.