# The Sun suddenly "turns off" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214 "2003-10-29T12:54:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/21 "2003-10-29T22:43:19Z")
The internal heat of the Earth would continue to be the same, so even if the top of the ocean froze, there would be a water layer underneath it wherever the ocean floor is being created by ocean floor spreading. I think eventually the top layer of the crust might get so cold that tectonics will slow down and even stop; as the crust sinks into the Earth at subduction zones it will cool, and I imagine the subduction zones will gradually seize up, perhaps becoming new wide mountain ranges. But there is another source of energy which will stop the Earth becoming a frozen, stable world; the Moon will still be there, stretching the Earth as it moves in its elliptical orbit; I think this will mean that there will always be a liquid water layer underneath the ice even when the atmosphere freezes. And freeze it will; the oxygen won’t find very much on the surface of the Earth to oxidise (after all our entire planet is covered in oxygen now; anything that isn’t oxidised and can be doesn’t last long… if it came to a race between oxidation and freezing I think the cold would win). In the pockets of salty water around the geothermal vents it might even be possible for life to continue; similarly there is life in the deep warm layers of the Earth, and these layers will still be there, just a little deeper perhaps. * * * SF worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/22 "2003-10-29T22:47:11Z")
Wasn’t there also a story where the Earth had been displaced from orbitting the sun by a black hole or something? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/23 "2003-10-29T22:55:05Z")
There is no OP. It is an illusion. It is the product of an unwell mind. Neither this thread nor this post exist. Move along. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/24 "2003-10-29T23:04:10Z")
[Central Heat](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441098592/qid=1067469173/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-2623625-5347131?v=glance&s=books), by David Dvorkin. Basially, aliens steal our sun. The Earth freezes fairly quickly- it becomes unlivable in about a week. I don’t want to say anything else, though- it’s a pretty good book, and you should read it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/25 "2003-10-30T02:11:33Z")
Way back, there was another story _A Pail of Air_. A star has passed through the solar system, and the earth was thrown into interstellar space. People were living in houses insulated by thick mazes of _blankets_, and going out to bring back the solid oxygen and nitrogen to heat, evaporate, and breathe. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/26 "2003-10-30T02:21:59Z")
I asked a very similar question a while back. [Here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126061) ---
**Author:** ![Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tyrrell_mcallister/32/16772_2.png) [@Tyrrell\_McAllister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyrrell_McAllister)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/27 "2003-10-30T05:02:01Z")
And so did I, in [my first post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=60283). Ah, memories! ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214/28 "2003-10-30T05:09:55Z")
Well, if the Sun goes “out,” the hamsters are not going to like it and postings to the SDMB will really slow down … 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-sun-suddenly-turns-off/210214.md?page=1)