Can the Sun Explode Tomorrow?
One morning, you wake up to find the sun shining, oblivious to the fact that it is slowly dying.
Imagine the possibility of a star exploding one day! It is the star that sustains life on planet Earth, without which all beings cannot survive. Yes, we are talking about the Sun. What would be the impact of its explosion on life on Earth? Are we all going to burn together with the fireball instantly? What if we all blew up into a million pieces after the explosion set us ablaze?
Unbelievably, the truth differs profoundly from what we imagine. If we somehow lived during the supposed explosions, what would it be like to watch the giant flame shrink before our eyes?
The Shining Star Of The Planet Earth
Sun, which appears to be the biggest star to us, is just an average-sized star that is 4.603 billion years old. As of now, it is believed to be in its most stable phase. The process by which a star explodes is known as a supernova. These explosions are extravagant and can create enormous shock waves. Nevertheless, it does not happen overnight. Instead, it would take millions of years for any star to die.
We would have to go a little deeper into the future when we imagine that the sun has exploded. How would it affect the universe though? If our sun exploded like this, the whole solar system would tremble. However, only the stars that are ten times the size of our sun can explode like that. If the star of planet Earth were to die, it would be a completely different story.
Under the weight of their own atoms, gaseous clouds like hydrogen and helium collapsed, forming stars like our sun. When these atoms fuse, their reactions release a high amount of energy. When this energy competes with gravity, it creates the fuel necessary for the sun and billions of other stars.
But, our sun would soon run out of hydrogen gas, and it is going to be at least 5 billion years. When there would not be enough hydrogen, helium atoms would have no choice but to fuse with other heavier elements. Unfortunately, these elements would not provide the same amount of energy that helium could release after reacting with hydrogen. As a result, gravity would have the upper hand here. Our sun would begin to experience a gradual death, like slow poison.
A White Dwarf Would Soon Emerge
Have you ever noticed how the air gets out of a balloon? The supernova of the sun would resemble that in some respects. Our sun would gradually go through multiple stages. To begin with, it would become much brighter and hotter. The heat would be so extreme that even the oceans would boil. Afterwards, it would start expanding into a giant red ball, such that its outer layers would dissolve away.
The size of the sun could even engulf the whole of Earth. It is still possible that a part of the solar system would exist, as only planets closer to the sun would be affected. After the sun will have reached its peak size on its way out of the solar system, it would soon loosen up all the swelling.
In the next stage, it will become smaller and smaller. As long as gravity and energy levels do not battle, the sun would shrink to the size of a white dwarf. An ageing white dwarf is the core of a dying star, which indicates the sun has finally died. In any case, we would not be here to witness all this unfolding stage by stage.
Is Life Possible After The Sun?
Even so, how exactly would Earth’s life feel as our star’s death threatens to cause a futuristic but devastating outcome? Would we be able to see fireworks if we watched it all from afar? Is it going to be like a shooting star, shown in the movies? With only the Sun to provide natural light, our planet would utterly sink into darkness. Regardless of day or night, the sky would be dark when the sun has vanished.
Sunlight is required not just for humans but for plants as well. To produce their own food, plants utilize sunlight for photosynthesis. Therefore, a lack of it will cause everything to grind to a halt. Following the explosions, Earth’s temperature will increase dramatically within a week.
When the giant red descends, the oceans that had not already evaporated would start to freeze. In a year, our planet’s atmosphere would be like that of a deep freezer, only if someone would be lucky enough to survive.
Would We be Closer to Colonizing Our Planet?
While we are already envisioning a very imaginative future, let’s consider one alternative. What if, by the exploding of the sun, something completely new emerged? We are saying this with the thought process that any supernovae eject masses of dust and gases.
Even though a supernova can shine as bright as a galaxy, the mystery of how something anew comes into being remains to be answered only by time. It might just create another space for living things to exist. In the very distant future, technology will be vastly advanced compared to what it is today. Perhaps life could form on another planet in a similar way as our own.
Nevertheless, it is nearly impossible to picture the solar system without the anchor that binds it all together. From what it looks like, in the absence of the sun, living beings cannot sustain life. While we have not witnessed any of it in real-time, and perhaps never will, astronauts can help advance our curiosity through their methods.
What are your opinions? Are you optimistic about colonizing planets in the future? In what way do you think human beings, if they exist, would survive this explosion?
