# If the Sun were to suddenly disappear... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757 "2018-12-07T18:35:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/21 "2018-12-07T21:01:56Z")
> [@XT](#): > > With our luck… I’d say we’ve been incredibly, almost impossibly, lucky. Especially considering that we can’t find anyone else out there. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/22 "2018-12-07T21:04:52Z")
I can all but guarantee Coppertone and Pugs would go out of business within a day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/23 "2018-12-07T21:38:29Z")
Given the OP, then anything is possible. Once the laws of identity and causality are violated, everything is random. If magic, then anything. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/24 "2018-12-07T23:47:22Z")
Couldn’t we live for as long as there are radioactive minerals, nuclear reactors and hydroponic farms? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/25 "2018-12-07T23:48:50Z")
This question triggered a sequence of thoughts, resulting in additional questions (hope it’s ok to piggy back): Thought 1: “hmm, if sun was suddenly gone then the light moving towards earth would speed up because less gravity holding it back” Thought 2: “wait, the speed of light is not affected by gravity” Thought 3: “hmmm, why is the speed of light not affected by gravity but the direction of light is affected (e.g. bent around star or black hole)? and isn’t a change in direction considered acceleration?” ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/26 "2018-12-07T23:58:21Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > This question triggered a sequence of thoughts, resulting in additional questions (hope it’s ok to piggy back): > > Thought 1: “hmm, if sun was suddenly gone then the light moving towards earth would speed up because less gravity holding it back” > > Thought 2: “wait, the speed of light is not affected by gravity” > > Thought 3: “hmmm, why is the speed of light not affected by gravity but the direction of light is affected (e.g. bent around star or black hole)? and isn’t a change in direction considered acceleration?” Under GR, which is a more accurate model, the Earth is traveling in a straight line, or the equivalent in curved space (geodesic) without any “acceleration” due to the gravity. The model that most people are familiar with under the Newtonian model, which doesn’t actually represent how we understand the effects under GR. There is zero acceleration and the gravity effects would be disappearing at about the same speed as the light arrived as they both go the speed of light. Ignoring the much smaller tractive tidal force the earth would experience zero “acceleration”. What we view as gravity is not a “force” it is the effects of masses curving spacetime, primarily in the dimension of time. Basically there is no difference between straight at a consent speed through curved space that ends up in an orbit and a “straighter” path through flatter spacetime without the sun. This is a bit of a simplification but hopefully helps out with the basic concept. Just remember that “Gravity” as a _force_ is a tool we use to make the math easier and because us humans can’t visualize in 4D. It is often good enough for the job but it is not an actual _force_. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/27 "2018-12-08T00:41:59Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Couldn’t we live for as long as there are radioactive minerals, nuclear reactors and hydroponic farms? Some of us could. Seven billion of us couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/28 "2018-12-08T00:51:05Z")
Since the planets orbit around the sun I’d think that once the sun disappeared the planets will drift off into space on a collision course. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/29 "2018-12-08T01:21:49Z")
On the plus said, we probably wouldn’t have to worry about global warming anymore. In fact, it maybe in our best interest to increase carbon emissions in such an unlikely scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/30 "2018-12-08T12:46:56Z")
It’d be tough to grow crops and maintain livestock. When would we run out of food? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/31 "2018-12-08T14:58:22Z")
> [@XT](#): > > With our luck it would be straight into another planet, then it’s adios muchachos… My WAG is that if we collided with any planet while it still mattered, it would have to be Venus or Mercury. Given that the nearer to the sun a planet is, the faster its orbital velocity, and given the widening distances between orbits as you go further out, Venus and Mercury would pass Earth on their outbound trips before Earth caught up with Mars. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/32 "2018-12-08T15:07:43Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > It’d be tough to grow crops and maintain livestock. When would we run out of food? Photosynthesis would cease as soon as sunlight stopped reaching the Earth, so green plants (other than trees), and animals dependent on them, would die pretty quickly. OTOH, keeping meat cold would quickly cease to be a problem, so if you’re somewhere with a decent deer population and you have a rifle, you should have enough food to last until your life became unsustainable due to the cold. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/33 "2018-12-08T15:18:18Z")
> [@SigMan](#): > > Since the planets orbit around the sun I’d think that once the sun disappeared the planets will drift off into space on a collision course. Since they’d all be moving away from where the sun had been, they’d mostly be moving further apart, dispersing over a much greater region of space over time. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/34 "2018-12-08T20:19:23Z")
No one’s really mentioned it would also be dark, with no daytime and no moonlight either, possibly because its too obvious. Presumably power supplies could run for a few days or perhaps weeks on stored fuel, and vehicle lights would work; owners of those little give-away hand-pump torches would become the new kings of this night-bound world, and that lady who runs the scented candle and souvenir store that i’ve never seen any customers in its new queen. Could the world or any nation grapple with the situation sufficiently to reorganise itself to rely on fuels in a land of perpetual dark. Maybe not such a problem in the depths of the coal mine, but conveying it, burning and rationing it to provide power for the things that matter, all probably needing to be done in the first seven days. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/35 "2018-12-08T20:26:17Z")
I know two posts in a row is uncool, but this is a separate train of thought. Isaac Asimov’s [Nightfall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Asimov_novelette_and_novel)) deals with a planet bathed in perpetual sunlight, except for the extremely infrequent moments when its moons create a total and everyone goes crazy with fear. and civilisations collapse. Not quite the same scenario as here, but worth a mention. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/36 "2018-12-08T21:39:53Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > **No one’s really mentioned it would also be dark, with no daytime and no moonlight either, possibly because its too obvious**. > > Presumably power supplies could run for a few days or perhaps weeks on stored fuel, and vehicle lights would work; owners of those little give-away hand-pump torches would become the new kings of this night-bound world, and that lady who runs the scented candle and souvenir store that i’ve never seen any customers in its new queen. > > Could the world or any nation grapple with the situation sufficiently to reorganise itself to rely on fuels in a land of perpetual dark. Maybe not such a problem in the depths of the coal mine, but conveying it, burning and rationing it to provide power for the things that matter, all probably needing to be done in the first seven days. Seems likely to me there will be some _real_ fireworks from coal mines, oil wells and frozen forests once it starts raining liquid O[sub]2[/sub]… ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/37 "2018-12-08T21:43:33Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Not quite the same scenario as here, but worth a mention. Don’t be too sure of that. people will go ape. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2018, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/38 "2018-12-08T23:21:21Z")
Among other things, a sudden upsurge in crackpot religiosity. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/39 "2018-12-09T01:14:56Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > On the plus said, we probably wouldn’t have to worry about global warming anymore. In fact, it maybe in our best interest to increase carbon emissions in such an unlikely scenario. [Randall Munroe lists several other upsides here](https://what-if.xkcd.com/49/): > [@](#): > > **Reduced risk of solar flares…** > > **Improved satellite service…** > > **Better astronomy…** > > \*\*\*\*\*\ ***Stable dust:** \*\*\*\*\*\*Without sunlight, there would be no [Poynting–Robertson drag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poynting%E2%80%93Robertson_effect), which means we would finally be able to place dust into a stable orbit around the Sun without the orbits decaying. I’m not sure whether anyone wants to do that, but you never know. > \*\*\*\*\*\*… (snipped more entries) > > * * * > > In conclusion, if the Sun went out, we would see a variety of benefits across many areas of our lives. > **Are there any downsides to this scenario?** > We would all freeze and die. > > * * * ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2018, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757/40 "2018-12-09T07:48:17Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Some of us could. Seven billion of us couldn’t. Of course, but “we” as a species could. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-sun-were-to-suddenly-disappear/825757.md?page=3)