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What Would Happen to Earth if the Sun Suddenly Disappeared

-- Cam | January 2, 2025

Question:

Hello folks at National Radio Astronomy Observatory. There was a previous question answered ages ago about how if the sun suddenly vanished it would take the planet roughly 8 minutes and 20 seconds for us to notice the sudden change. My question elaborates on the hypothetical: If the sun suddenly vanished and 8minutes and 20 seconds have passed what would happen? Like are we suddenly bathed in darkness? The previous question talks about gravity (something I didn’t think about until I read it), but would we just become squashed by our own gravity? Please elaborate as much as you can on what could happen. I’m very far away from astronomy but I’m always curious in these what if questions when I learn a new thing about our strange existence (like how we won’t know about the Sun vanishing for 8minutes and 20 seconds).

-- Cam

Answer:

As you noted, the overall answer to this question was provided in our previous post, which noted that we would not notice the Sun’s disappearance until about 8 minutes and 20 seconds after it had disappeared due to the light (and gravity wave) travel time from the Sun to the Earth. At that point there would be no Sun to illuminate the Earth, leaving us in darkness except for light from stars. Note also that the Moon would be dark as it is illuminated by the Sun. We would also drift out of our orbit as there would be no solar gravity to hold the Earth in orbit.

-- Jeff Mangum

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