# When the sun blows up, will we see it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167 "2012-03-08T17:36:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/1 "2012-03-08T17:36:35Z")
Forgive my woeful ignorance of astronomy and physics, but let’s see if I can frame the question properly. Right now there’s a solar storm going on, which, I’m given to understand, is hurling gobs of cosmic matter at us at something like four million mph – meaning we saw evidence of the eruption about 18 hours before we experienced aurora borealis, disruptions in satellite communications, etc. So what would happen if - instead of some extra cosmic radiation - the solar storm was violent enough to blow a chunk of the sun straight toward Earth (or the Moon, or one of the other planets?) Would we actually have time to see the phenomenon taking place and track the movement of this ball of fire before it impacted Earth and destroyed us? Would humanity’s last words be a collective “OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!”? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/2 "2012-03-08T17:44:31Z")
Since light travels at the speed of light, and everything else has to travel somewhat slower, we’ll always have some potential for a warning. The issue with a gob of the sun heading towards us is that it’s coming from the sun. It might be hard to spot the same way a flashlight held in front of a spotlight would be hard to see, but I suspect we’d pick up enough unusual radiation, etc. to give us some warning. How much warning depends on the speed of the gob. At that point, it will be up to the professor, his 20-year-old PhD supermodel assistant and his rival (possibly an ex-wife) to solve the problem with their untested theory before the military does something stupid with nukes. At least, that’s how Syfy would cast it. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/3 "2012-03-08T17:48:28Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > So what would happen if - instead of some extra cosmic radiation - the solar storm was violent enough to blow a chunk of the sun straight toward Earth (or the Moon, or one of the other planets?) Would we actually have time to see the phenomenon taking place and track the movement of this ball of fire before it impacted Earth and destroyed us? That’s exactly what is happening today, a giant blob of plasma is heading for us, I forget how many millions of tons. We have some warning because their was a flash of light when it detached. It’s travelling towards us at about 2,000 kilometres per second, so it takes several hours to get here. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/4 "2012-03-08T17:52:18Z")
Seems to me it’s impossible for the sun to blow chunks. Any gob of sun that attempted to leave the sun would be pulled apart by the sun’s gravity before it even left the surface. The most it can do is spew out streams of mass as it did yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/5 "2012-03-08T18:03:04Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Seems to me it’s impossible for the sun to blow chunks. Any gob of sun that attempted to leave the sun would be pulled apart by the sun’s gravity before it even left the surface. The most it can do is spew out streams of mass as it did yesterday. It’s not the gravity, it’s the temperature. The sun doesn’t _have_ any solid chunks to hurl; at that temperature (about 6000 C even at the coolest part) everything is either gas or plasma. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/6 "2012-03-08T18:07:14Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > It’s not the gravity, it’s the temperature. The sun doesn’t _have_ any solid chunks to hurl; at that temperature (about 6000 C even at the coolest part) everything is either gas or plasma. That, too. But assuming a gob of plasma did want to form a blob, the gravity of the sun would pull it to bits on its attempted exit. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/7 "2012-03-08T18:13:57Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > At that point, it will be up to the professor, his 20-year-old PhD supermodel assistant and his rival (possibly an ex-wife) to solve the problem with their untested theory before the military does something stupid with nukes. At least, that’s how Syfy would cast it. They’d better hurry though. [According to wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_flare#Hazards) > [@](#): > > A solar flare on January 20, 2005 released the highest concentration of protons ever directly measured,[9] taking only 15 minutes after observation to reach Earth Doesn’t give them much time to be awkward together, profess their love, and make whoopee before completing the final part of the brilliant plan. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/8 "2012-03-08T18:16:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Since light travels at the speed of light, and everything else has to travel somewhat slower, we’ll always have some potential for a warning. > > The issue with a gob of the sun heading towards us is that it’s coming from the sun. It might be hard to spot the same way a flashlight held in front of a spotlight would be hard to see, but I suspect we’d pick up enough unusual radiation, etc. to give us some warning. How much warning depends on the speed of the gob. We’re continually observing the Sun with a wide variety of instruments, and to a considerable degree of detail. We can not only recognize coronal mass ejections as soon as they happen (and usually, some time before), we can actually recognize them happening on the _far side_ of the Sun. And that’s just for the normal-sized ones: Something big enough to be dangerous would be that much more easily detected. > [@](#): > > Seems to me it’s impossible for the sun to blow chunks. Any gob of sun that attempted to leave the sun would be pulled apart by the sun’s gravity before it even left the surface. The most it can do is spew out streams of mass as it did yesterday. The most relevant forces aren’t actually the forces between bits of matter directly, but from interactions between the matter and the magnetic field. You can have blobs of plasma that stay more-or-less cohesive (though still very fluid) due to the magnetic field sort-of containing them. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/9 "2012-03-08T19:11:31Z")
My smart alec side says “yep, we’ll see it but not for long…” This thread reminded me a a great short story by Larry Niven [“InconstantMoon”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inconstant_Moon#Inconstant_Moon). ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/10 "2012-03-08T19:25:21Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Seems to me it’s impossible for the sun to blow chunks. You don’t understand … Chunks is my _dog_! ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/11 "2012-03-08T20:59:18Z")
for a microsecond or so ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/12 "2012-03-08T21:40:08Z")
??? I had thought that a main sequence star, when it expands into a red giant, does it kinda slowly. Takes thousands of years. It doesn’t explode, but just gets more and more swollen. It’s like the story of boiling a frog really really slowly… Our “last words” (or humanity’s successors, since we’ll be long extinct) would be a long, dull sequence of “Hot enough for ya” jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-sun-blows-up-will-we-see-it/615167/13 "2012-03-08T22:27:25Z")
The biggest danger (realistically) from a solar flare is a repeat of the [Carrington event](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859) in 1859, which has been predicted to cause damage in the [trillions of dollars](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/solar-storm-could-cause-more-damage-than-hurricane-katrina-2221706.html): > [@](#): > > Havoc wreaked by a solar storm – such as the one that occurred last week – could be equivalent to a “global hurricane Katrina” that would cost up to $2 trillion dollars in damage to communications satellites, electric power grids and GPS navigation systems, scientists said yesterday. Essentially, the damage is similar to that of a nuclear EMP (in fact, they have some of the same damage modes). Of course, if we didn’t have any technology, the only way we would notice is auroras down to tropical latitudes (in 1859, telegraph systems gone haywire were the only technological effects). As for the Sun simply blowing up, that will never happen since it doesn’t have enough mass, and by the time it becomes a red giant, Earth will have been long uninhabitable due to a long-term increase in brightness (it will be too hot about a billion years from now; the Sun will last about 4 billion years past that). Even then (if we are still around and somehow expand the Earth’s orbit or shade it), the transition to a red giant is very slow on a human timescale ([Wikipedia says a billion years](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Earth#Red_giant_stage)).