2006-07-19 08:40:55 · 20 answers · asked by LULU1218 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I like the last answer there:):)......but most of you are essentially correct. Though talking about the Sun going supernova ......assuming some malign ET's placed a sun killer bomb in the core of our star (it wouldn't do it any other way), the flash of light after 8.3 minutes would be the equ' of a 25 billion Solar luminosity flashbulb. Although this flash would be far more continuous than a flashbulb, the moment it hit the planet, it would photodissociate everything on the surface instantly and melt the surface down to about 3-4 miles. As the Earth continued to melt, the shockwave would arrive travelling at about 20,000km/sec, in about a few hours. That would then ablate what was left of the Earth completely and send the remnants packing out into interstellar space.....eventually.
2006-07-19 10:39:33 · answer #1 · answered by ozzie35au 3 · 6⤊ 1⤋
8 Minutes based on what we perceive the spend of light is or the sun is 8 light minutes from us. EU or earth unit is the measure of the earth from the sun so 1 EU or AU I forget is 8 light minutes.
A light years is 299,792,458 meters per second.
So you can do the math and find out the distance from the sun to the earth. 8 minutes has always been the same answers but what if the sun went super nova shock waves would arrive, likely the first would do us in but there might be slightly more time because the suns gravity well would be no more. We would sling in to space and the waves or wave as it were would eventually catch up with us and fry the planet.
Then if the planet wasn't total destroyed it would travel the galaxy or universe until it found a new gravity well to orbit. Given the correct position and if it is orbiting a star life would likely form again.
But that is only if the earth was able to basically be propelled out of the system on the edge of the wave until the energy mostly was gone and is extremely unlikely.
8 minutes is mathematically correct but it does not take in account the lose of gravity and the fact that the earth would be propelled into the galaxy.
2006-07-19 15:51:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In this question, you actually want to know how far the Earth is from the Sun in terms of the distance covered by light.
The Earth is approximately 500 light seconds, or about 8 light minutes, from the Sun. Therefore, if the sun were to "explode," it would be about eight minutes before we knew about it.
2006-07-19 15:45:35 · answer #3 · answered by kiranlightpaw 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hmm... interesting question.
Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. But, the effects of an actual explosion might be faster. So, it is theoretically possible that if the sun exploded, we might all die without seeing the sun do anything unusual, because the blast traveled faster than the light did.
2006-07-19 15:45:36 · answer #4 · answered by wabbitqueen 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It takes roughly 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth. So that would probably be our first clue that something has happened.
However, I'm not sure how our gravity would be effected by the Sun's explosion. A change in gravity might actually be the first sign.
2006-07-19 15:46:30 · answer #5 · answered by Justin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About 8 minutes, assuming there were no precursors to such an event. The issue is that if what you put forward did occur, the entire electromagnetic pulse would reach us at the same time, so we would get the visible light, but also all of the other forms of radiation that would end all life on Earth. In other words, we would NEVER know about it, because we would be fried into component atoms.
Cheery thought, no?
2006-07-19 15:44:22 · answer #6 · answered by But why is the rum always gone? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Eight minutes (the same amount of time it takes sunlight to travel between the sun and the Earth). Of course, the knowledge would only last for a split second .... then we'd all be dead.
2006-07-19 15:45:14 · answer #7 · answered by zharantan 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About 8 minutes using the speed of light! To the guy who said about supernovas, the question is about the current sun, which is not a supernova! Sorry!
2006-07-19 15:47:28 · answer #8 · answered by Shadow 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About eight minutes, the amount of time it takes for light to traverse the distance between the sun and the earth.
2006-07-19 15:43:50 · answer #9 · answered by Harry 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Eight minutes until we saw it. It takes eight minutes for the light from the sun to hit Earth. I am not sure how long until we all died, though.
I actually started writing a book about the sun blowing up and killing us all, but it sucked.
2006-07-19 15:44:00 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋