Could the Sun suddenly explode? What would happen?
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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]