Posted on 12/11/2004 11:15:46 AM PST by SamAdams76
...The short answer to your question is that no one knows the answer. I have come across some interesting information, though, and I will try to give you my thoughts on the matter from a physicist's point of view, but you might also want to resubmit the question with my answer attached and see if you can get further input from a biologist.
First, let's consider how long the planet could support large land animals like ourselves. Just think about the temperature difference between night and day and it should be pretty clear that the atmosphere (at least the troposphere, where we live) cools quite rapidly by radiation. It should only be a matter of days before the surface temperature drops below freezing everywhere on the planet. In, fact in six months to a year, the temperature should drop to less than 150 Kelvin, half its current value. I would not expect any biological activity to remain at this temperature. However, there may be organisms which could survive in a suspended state if they were to freeze before they starved. That's something a biologist would have to comment on. So I would say that an upper bound for the survival of large land animals would be less than six months, just based on temperature. However, it should be much less than this since the food chain, which starts with sunlight (which plants use), would break down almost immediately.
What would happen with the oceans? Well, there's a tremendous amount of latent heat in the oceans, which would help to warm the atmosphere. However, once the surface of the ocean began to freeze, it would become more and more insulated by the cover of ice. Thus, it appears that the transfer of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere could be significant only in the early stages of the cooling. However, the insulating effect of the ice would allow the oceans to stay above freezing for quite a while, though once again, the food chain would break down radidly, and the supply of oxygen would be cut off.
Now, there is another energy source which is significant - geothermal heat. There are organisms which live on the seafloor near geothermal vents - fissures from which superheated water laden with various gases and nutrients are expelled. The question is - are these organisms dependent only on the nutrients and heat that they recieve from the vents, or are they connected to the rest of the food chain? There are many more qualified to answer this than I. I wouldn't be surprised if they were dependent on the oxygen generated by photosynthesis, and thus vulnerable.
I have also seen mention of organisms found in core samples from quite deep in the Earth's crust which may depend only on geothermal heat, but I don't know how credible this is.
Of course, it's possible that technology would allow a very small population of humans to survive, just as they might on a lunar base. However, if such a facility does not already exist, it is doubtful whether one could be constructed before the atmosphere froze out onto the ground, especially since it would probably take more people to construct it than it would be able to support. It might be possible to modify a bomb shelter to serve such a purpose, but it would need to be able to generate breathable air, and there would need to be a way of obtaining fuel. With no solar energy, you would need to use nuclear energy, fossil fuel, or geothernal energy.
In short, we wouldn't last long, but there may be organisms which could survive indefinitely, either by freezing before they starve, or because they don't depend on solar energy at all. I would definitely recommend submitting this to a biologist for further comment.
We'd get a couple weeks of truly awesome skiing.
I'm pretty sure it would expand and go supernova before it collapsed and ' went out'. The first event would effectively roast most of the solar system, and the second would not have any witnesses.
Seriousness aside- the sun going out would probably be the ONLY way we'd get a REAL winter, and a white Christmas, in New Orleans.
I'd settle for it being moved just a bit farther out, but then nuclear winter sounds like a good thing to me! LOL
I keep a flashlight handy just in case it does go out.
John
Of course, it's possible that technology would allow a very small population of humans to survive, ....
Doctor Strangelove: "Mein Furher, er, I mean Mr. President, I should think we could use some of our deepest mineshafts for living space as a means of preserving our civilization... "
General "Buck" Turgidson: "Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?"
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious...service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
Definitively.
Sudbury Solar Neutrino Observatory, a few years back. The "missing" neutrinos were there all along, but had undergone a "flavor" change enroute, and the early neutrino detectors were sensitive to only one flavor. The upgraded to detectors capable of detect all three flavors of neutrinos, and there they were, just as theory predicted they should be.
The Sun will not just wink out like a candle burning out, the nature of the fusion reaction fueling it and its position on the HR diagram means that it will first expand to a Red Giant engulfing the Earth as it expands out to the the Earth's orbit, then it will explode in a nova, then contract back down into a brown dwarf, then die out. There's no way any life on earth can survive that. Heck, there's no way earth itself can survive that. Earth will become a part of the Sun in the Red Giant stage.
No, it's a George Harrison song along with "While my Guitar Gently Weeps."
Women, minorities to be hit hardest.
Don't know what would happen, but I am sure women and minorities would be hurt the worst.
Something akin to it was also covered in a short story "A Pail of Air". The premise being that every so often, they have to go outside and get a pailful of the frozen blue stuff (oxygen) that was all over.
This is bogus logic. The Earth itself depends on the Sun's gravity to a degree to initiate the geothermal activity within its core. Without it, no organism at all would survive. Everything on Earth depends on solar energy of one type or another. Earth would become a lifeless rock, rapidly moving away from its former position towards interstellar space.
That's if it were simply to snuff out, which is unlikely. More than likely, it would swell to a thousand times its normal size and fry the Earth to a cinder first before collapsing and starting up the deep freeze.
Did you ever catch the episode of "The Outer Limits" (the new one) where a scientist was convinced one evening that the Sun had gone supernova on the dayside of the planet? Turns out it was simply an unusually large solar flare. It was interesting to see how everyone decided to spend their last minutes.
Consider what (or Who) made it start up in the first place.
If solar fusion stopped today, it would be about 1,000,000 years before the sun cooled sufficiently that we might even begin to know about it, strangely enough. Fusion takes place deep inside the core of the sun. It takes millions of years for the heat generated to make its way to the surface where it radiates and we can feel it.
What if the sun WERE to go out. WERE to go out. (subjunctive mood, my friend)
At any rate, I would not worry about it if I were you, because if it WERE to go out, you would stop worrying about everything, and in short order.
If I recall correctly, that was one of comedian Stephen Wright's lines. As is my new tag line.
Woman in audience: "Did you say the Earth is likely to be destroyed in twenty million years?"
Astronomer: "No, ma'am. I said twenty billion years."
Woman [obviously relieved]: "Oh, thank God."
Micheal Moore would make a movie called "Fahrenheit -911" and try to convince America "it's GWBs fault.
This war would be all about "Big Steam" and be solely to benefit Bush's cronies.......
;-)
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