If earth had more than one sun ? How would we spent our days / nights? or days??

Question

consider we had more than one sun , say 2 suns , but smaller in size and Heat generation equal to our existing sun.

If possibility that they were placed opposite each other , the earth would not get cooled. we could have more valcanoes. is'nt it ??????
Life would be difficult.
would oceans exist.
or would we have rains /evaporation cyle daily.

????????

Answer 1

A binary sun system couldn't have the suns opposite each other without the planets spinning off into space far as I know. The planets' orbits need to be around both suns so there would still be a day and night.

But maybe I'm wrong....

Answer 2

There are two general situations regarding this. One is that the earth would be orbiting both stars. In my opinion, this wouldn't be any different than orbiting the one sun. However, the spectrum of light would be likely different as in that the temperatures of the suns are probably different. This would have an effect on things such as flora and UV concentration. Nevertheless, there would still be day and night.

The second possibility is that the earth would between the two suns, which is what you question seems to intimate. The problem with this scenario is that the earth would unlikely have a stable orbit. What is more likely would be a situation where the earth and one of the stars both orbit the other. With this in mind, the orbiting star would have to be some distance from the other, so it's energy output would likely be not as massive. It would just appear like a bright star in the sky during the part of the year that the earth is between them.

One effect that this might have is it the eccentricity of the outer sun's orbit is rather profound. Over a period of years, depending on the revolution time of the second star, there might be a noticeable climate cycle as the orbiting sun achieves perihelion. This would probably stimulate flora growth and produce brief periods of global warming. Obviously society would have to be prepared for this.

Our star's next door neighbour, Rigil Kentarus (or Alpha Centauri), is a binary star (not including Proxima, which is a great distance from the other two). The stars have an 80-year orbital period, with the relative distance between them being about the distance of Uranus from the sun. The PC game Alpha Centauri hypothesizes an earth-type planet orbiting the A star (which is in the same spectral class as the sun) with the B star off in the distance. The planetology of this hypothetical world is quite interesting. Perhaps one day in the foreseeable future, the situation of the above might be visible to human eyes.

Answer 3

Interesting thought. I was just thinking about the effect of two suns on the development of early religions. People had one sun, which used to be the center of worship in some religions. What could have happened if we had two suns? Would our thoughts evolve around a binary principle, e.g. the equality of male and female rather than developing a hierarchy? Would people be more open-minded, always seeking for a second option? Maybe I read the Da Vinci Code a little too often, but I could imagine two suns would have an affect on religion and society. At least we could talk a lot more about the weather.

Answer 4

If Jupiter were a couple dozen times more massive than it is, we would be living in a binary star system. We would have day/night, but the schedule would be different. Weather patterns would surely be affected, we could possibly even end up with a runaway greenhouse effect like Venus, because two suns would increase the rate of evaporation of all the water on Earth.

Answer 5

Well, if they were placed on opposite sides of us, the orbit would be messed up. So we would go around one sun, and the other would be farther away. That would no doubt make us much colder in the "winter," then the "summer" would seem a lot hotter. But they can make it in Alaska, I'm sure we could make it too.

Answer 6

if the energy output was equilvalent to our sun, why do you think the earth wouldnt cool?

Im assuming that the earth is still tilted on its axis, and unevenly heated between the equator and poles.

Hot air and water would still circulate .

Personally I dont think that life, if it evolved would be any more or less difficult, it would be different as so would we. We'd have adapted to it and it would all seem normal

Answer 7

more than one sun would result in continuous daylight, like there is at the
poles during summer - without alternating day and night, mammalian sleep and dreaming would not have evolved - without dreaming and its central role in learning, human civilization and rational thought would not have emerged,
so, with more than one sun you would not have asked this question! I discuss this in recent NPR interview at
http://www.sciencestudio.org/bryson.wma

Answer 8

It is like having 2 girl friends. Sometime it is fun many times it is torture.

Answer 9

If we had more than one Sun then we would've been all roasted really badly by now.