# Re-igniting the dying Sun **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666 "2014-03-02T09:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/21 "2014-03-02T18:41:00Z")
Since the OP is positing that scientists messed up their predictions of the Suns evolution, I’m assuming it doesn’t balloon up to become a red giant. So, mirrors. Very light weight mirrors, suspended by radiation pressure, surrounding enough of the Sun so that it’s temperature rises back to normal even with its reduced internal heat generation. Leave a hole facing the Earth. Good luck… ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/22 "2014-03-02T18:43:13Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > This is basically the plot of the movie [Sunshine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film)), in which they send two spaceships with nukes to re-ignite a dying sun. I don’t think they ever talk much about the actual science, though… That’s because there was essentially no actual science in the film. This one is just second to _The Core_ in terms of gathering a great cast and spending millions on special effects and staging sequences all surrounding an utterly absurd essential plot element and then adding completely unnecessary drama on top of it. For the o.p., no, there is nothing we can do with anything like conventional technology–not even massive thermonuclear weapons–which would make any significant impact on stellar characteristics or evolution. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/23 "2014-03-02T18:46:12Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Jeez, dude, now I don’t see any point in getting up for work tomorrow morning. > > Anyway, my understanding is that the only way one could hope to re-ignite a dying sun would be to add significant hydrogen mass to it. Which means dragging another star over to our location. Meaning it probably would be simpler just to re-settle around that other star. The problem is that it’s not just a matter of adding more hydrogen. You can add all the hydrogen you want to the outside, but all that does is raise the pressure/temperature in the core and cause it to burn what little fuel it has even faster. Some of the very biggest stars burn up the hydrogen in their cores within hundreds of thouands of years. The fact that they only burned a tiny percentage of their total hydrogen is no consolation to the planets that were blown up in a supernova before they could even form. Really, if the goal is to keep the star going forever, the problem is that the sun is already too big. A red dwarf star puts out a lot less energy, but it uses its fuel much more efficiently so that more hydrogen gets burned over a lifespan that would be twenty or more times as long as the sun’s. Therefore, if we’re considering outlandish things like moving stars and planets, my recommendation would be to build a red dwarf. The smallest red dwarf stars need only about 1% of the sun’s mass… which, alas, is still something like 200 Jupiters, and still makes it seem quite easy to just move the Earth instead. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/24 "2014-03-02T18:47:07Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > That’s because there was essentially no actual science in the film. This one is just second to _The Core_ in terms of gathering a great cast and spending millions on special effects and staging sequences all surrounding an utterly absurd essential plot element and then adding completely unnecessary drama on top of it. > > For the o.p., no, there is nothing we can do with anything like conventional technology–not even massive thermonuclear weapons–which would make any significant impact on stellar characteristics or evolution. > > Stranger We’ll not with that attitude mister! ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/25 "2014-03-02T18:52:32Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Therefore, if we’re considering outlandish things like moving stars and planets, my recommendation would be to build a red dwarf…\ …which would proceed to glow slightly brighter than present-day Venus, thereby returning life back to normal? Well, better than nothing, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/26 "2014-03-02T19:13:55Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > Evolution to the red-giant branch takes millions of years. We’d have plenty of warning and time to develop something or even push off en-masse to the Proxima system. > > My concern is, what if I wake up _tomorrow_ and find the sun a deep red garnet emitting weepy red light barely enough to read a newspaper by? Probably there was a hiccup in getting hydrogen to the core, and the sun has shut down fusion, but is holding up against gravitational collapse by residual heat from the core. > > I imagine the world would be concerned and it would not be business as usual. It’s sounds like the sun suddenly lost mass and became a red dwarf. Those things burn practically forever so we just move the earth a little closer. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/27 "2014-03-02T19:26:16Z")
You folks are ignoring the obvious. Simply place a classified ad in the Inter-Galatic News. Wanted New Sun. And they will deliver it. People are buying suns all the time. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/28 "2014-03-02T19:48:28Z")
> [@mandala](#): > > …which would proceed to glow slightly brighter than present-day Venus, thereby returning life back to normal? Well, better than nothing, I guess. You’d have to be really close to it, obviously. And I’m not sure I’d call it normal, but as a panacea for an irrational fear that the sun might break, it does seem like the least likely to cause anxiety. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/29 "2014-03-02T20:37:30Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > That’s because there was essentially no actual science in the film. This one is just second to _The Core_ in terms of gathering a great cast and spending millions on special effects and staging sequences all surrounding an utterly absurd essential plot element and then adding completely unnecessary drama on top of it. > > For the o.p., no, there is nothing we can do with anything like conventional technology–not even massive thermonuclear weapons–which would make any significant impact on stellar characteristics or evolution. **Stranger** is the egghead scientist in the movie telling all the heroes how this crazy plan can’t possibly work. Fear not, he’ll get his just desserts in a tragic yet comedic death about 2/3 through the movie. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/30 "2014-03-02T21:01:23Z")
Bombard it with reverse-polarity neutrino beams by using the secondary reflector shield! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/31 "2014-03-02T21:09:31Z")
They could try cross-circuiting to B. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/32 "2014-03-02T21:55:27Z")
Get the whales to talk to the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/33 "2014-03-02T22:04:45Z")
I guess what the OP is asking is: Will mankind one day, without the net expenditure of energy, be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age? Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased? I’d say the best answer to this question is: There is insufficient data for a meaningful answer at this time. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/34 "2014-03-02T22:22:46Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > I wonder what any sudden solar mass loss (say a passing black hole) is going to do to the planets orbits. Are they all going to fly off? > > There’s an interesting short story I’ve read where a few people survive the loss of the sun due to creating a closed system and periodically going out to get supplies…including frozen oxygen. [A Pail of Air](http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm) by Fritz Leiber. Great story. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/35 "2014-03-03T00:54:43Z")
[Asimov](https://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm) already solved this problem for us. ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/36 "2014-03-03T02:38:57Z")
So we all look toward the Sun and chorus “Let there be light?” That simple? :eek: Does not sound like a great technological civilization. Tribes in the swamps in Amazon would do similar. We Americans gotta do better. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/37 "2014-03-03T03:42:49Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > Bombard it with reverse-polarity neutrino beams by using the secondary reflector shield! But DON’T cross the beams! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/38 "2014-03-03T10:11:00Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > First of all, the bomb would evaporate from the heat long before it got anywhere near the core. But what if we launch it at night? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Teddy\_Kennedy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Teddy\_Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teddy_Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666/39 "2014-03-05T06:31:17Z")
How long has the sun been around? What are the odds that the sun would die _right now_, right when we’re _so close_ (relatively) to colonizing other parts of the galaxy? Don’t worry about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-igniting-the-dying-sun/682666.md?page=1)