What If the Sun Exploded Tomorrow?

WHAT IF

7/24/2023

Could the Sun suddenly explode? What would happen?

Transcript

00:00 (explosion)

00:05 (explosion)

00:06 (singing)

00:12 This is WHAT IF,

00:15 and here's what would happen

00:16 if the Sun exploded tomorrow.

00:20 That star at the center of our Solar System,

00:23 that super-hot ball of plasma

00:25 that gives us heat and energy,

00:27 and amazing complexions.

00:29 "Ahh! You f------!"

00:33 Well, it's a ticking time bomb.

00:37 The Sun is 4.5 billion years old,

00:40 but it's only expected to last

00:42 about another 5 billion years.

00:45 After that, the Sun will expand,

00:47 becoming a red giant.

00:50 Then, it will shrink to become a white dwarf,

00:53 a dying star,

00:55 cooling for the next several billion years.

00:58 Of course, we'll all be long gone

01:00 before any of that happens.

01:01 But still, can you imagine

01:04 what it would be like

01:05 to watch the Sun blow up

01:07 before your very eyes?

01:09 With a name like "supernova,"

01:11 you'd think that a solar explosion

01:14 would be the most magnificent fireworks show

01:16 the world has ever seen.

01:19 But in reality,

01:21 you likely wouldn't see anything.

01:23 The Sun is 150 million km (1.2 billion mi)

01:27 away from Earth.

01:29 And it takes 8 minutes

01:31 for light from the Sun to reach us.

01:33 And while that may seem super far away,

01:37 in supernova terms,

01:39 we don't stand a chance.

01:42 For Earth to be completely safe

01:44 from a supernova,

01:45 we'd need to be at least

01:47 50 to 100 light-years away.

01:50 But the good news is that

01:52 if the Sun were to explode tomorrow,

01:54 the resulting shock wave

01:56 wouldn't be strong enough

01:57 to destroy the whole Earth.

01:59 Only the side facing the Sun

02:01 would boil away instantly.

02:03 The lucky other half

02:04 would experience a rise in temperature

02:06 that would be 15 times hotter

02:08 than the Sun's current surface temperature,

02:11 and permanent darkness.

02:16 And without the Sun's mass

02:17 keeping us in orbit,

02:18 Earth would likely start

02:20 floating off into space,

02:22 while its remaining inhabitants

02:23 desperately struggle to stay alive.

02:27 There is a chance that our planet

02:29 could lock into orbit

02:30 around another star

02:31 that might provide the same light

02:33 and heat as our Sun.

02:35 But by the time that happened,

02:37 we'd all be long gone.

02:40 If we knew in advance

02:41 the day that the Sun would explode,

02:44 then we could buy ourselves

02:45 as many as 1,000 years of time,

02:48 provided we had the resources

02:50 to sustain ourselves for that long.

02:52 And we could.

02:53 Just a few meters below the ground

02:55 you walk on,

02:56 the Earth is maintaining a temperature

02:58 of about 17°C (40°F).

03:01 So if we had enough time to prepare,

03:03 civilization could continue to live

03:05 by moving underground

03:07 into a huge network of fortified bunkers.

03:11 Within a week after the explosion,

03:13 the surface temperature on Earth

03:15 would drop to -18°C (40°F).

03:18 Within a year,

03:19 temperatures would plummet

03:21 to about -73°C (14°F).

03:24 At this point,

03:24 the oceans would begin to freeze

03:26 from the top down.

03:28 Within 1,000 years,

03:30 Earth's atmosphere would freeze and collapse,

03:33 leaving anything left on the surface

03:35 exposed to cosmic radiation

03:37 and meteor impacts.

03:39 Hopefully, by that point,

03:41 we'd have found ourselves a new home.

03:44 The good news is that

03:45 if the Sun were to explode,

03:47 and it will eventually happen,

03:50 it wouldn't happen overnight.

03:52 When the Sun does die,

03:53 it will be a long, slow, arduous process

03:57 taking place over billions of years.

04:00 The Sun will get hotter and brighter,

04:02 and it will start to expand.

04:04 During this process,

04:06 it will lose its outer layers to the cosmos,

04:08 leading to the creation of other stars and planets,

04:12 in the same way that the violent burst

04:14 of the Big Bang created Earth.

04:16 Who knows?

04:17 Maybe new life could form.

04:19 Can you imagine another Earth?

04:22 A new humanoid species?

04:25 It's hard to predict how our galaxy

04:27 might look billions of years from now.

04:29 And it's especially hard to imagine our Solar System

04:32 without the great golden anchor

04:34 that keeps us all together.

04:36 But one day,

04:38 in the very, very distant future,

04:41 the Sun will expand.

04:43 And then it will shrink.

04:45 Maybe leaving room for a new star to take its place.

04:49 And if by some miracle,

04:51 humanity still exists at that point,

04:54 where might we be living?

04:56 Can you imagine your descendants

04:58 being born on a space station?

05:01 Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.

05:05 [music]

05:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]

What If the Sun Exploded Tomorrow?

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