How much water would it take to extinguish the sun?

Answer 1

I think a simple (and very imaginary) problem like this would be asking for a quantity of water (at some temperature - e.g. 0°C) that would be required to bring the temperature below the threshold for fusion - in this case for the CNO-cycle.

Obviously, it will be a large mass - on the order of the mass of the sun - and anything that large with H and O might itself have sufficient mass to induce fusion or the conditions for fusion.


It is not possible. That mass of water would collapse like the gas cloud that formed the sun, the intense pressure would cause temperatures to rise in the core, causing the water molecules to break down into component atoms which would become ionized. Voila we have a new star. It cannot be done. The problem is a worthless excersize in algebra that has no connection to reality.

Answer 2

Use following hints: -
1. To save water do it at night. It will also be convenient to do as you could pour the water down on sun across the horizon. Whereas in day time the sun is up and you will need a heavy big pump to throw the water up at sun.
2. If you are unable to do it at night, wait till winters, specially on a cloudy day. It is summers now and Sun is too hot these days.
3. Try to put a blanket on it, water will boil and fall back on your face, might hurt you.
4. Attempt it from North/south pole to make use of local material. A very important principle for Engineering works.
5. Have some tea leaves handy to serve tea to your friends watching you doing this important job.
6. Conversion of Solar Energy to Steam Energy will be a by-product. Must cash on this business.
7. For an easy operation, cut the sun into small pieces and extinguish all one-by-one. Your friends and family members can assist.
8. Use sun-block, sun-glasses and hand gloves during the operation.
9. Keep the extinguished pieces out of reach of children preferably in deep freezer. There might still be some life left in a piece.
10. When ever you are ready for the operation, wait for about two more hours, some one may be tanning out there at beach. Give them some time to change and pack up before it is too dark/cold.
11. Wish you success.

Answer 3

Sun is a ball of fire indeed. but the heat is produced by nuclear fusion, where the hydrogen atoms combine to form helium and release energy. several innumerable fusion reactions occur at every point of time, releasing lots and lots of light and heat.
The process can stop only when there are no more hydrogen atoms left to fuse and release energy. Then Sun would disappear suddenly ! just as if we switch off a bulb and there its gone !! It is bound to happen one day or the other.

As far as extinguishing with water is concerned, the water couldn't do that. Water is converted into vapour or steam just at the temperature above 100 degrees. What happens at the temparature of sun ? It would just evoparate and disappear in a fraction of a second. thats why all the water on earth would also not be enough to extinguish sun.

anyway, it was an Interesting and thought provoking question !

Answer 4

Asking how much water is a silly question, as we have established. But my friend and I were talking today, and we believe that there is a way of extinguishing the Sun, but of course, only theoretically. The Sun rotates one full cycle per 27 days, and a lot of its mass is concentrated at the core, with an incredibly high density. However, if we were to rotate the Sun faster than it is at present, then the mass would move towards the edges, and the Sun may swell up a bit, or quite a lot, I don't know. But, given that you were spinning it fast enough, then surely the mass would spread to the surface of the sphere, and the density at its core would then be incapable of sustaining fusion, and thus, the star would be unable to continue fusion. Any more thoughts on this? Or any calculations from anyone that may be able to agree or disagree? Gravitational binding energy will have to be taken into consideration.

I hope this helps.

Answer 5

As far as extinguishing with water is concerned, the water couldn't do that. Water is converted into vapour or steam just at the temperature above 100 degrees. What happens at the temparature of sun ? It would just evoparate and disappear in a fraction of a second. thats why all the water on earth would also not be enough to extinguish sun.

Answer 6

Water would not be a sufficient resource to extinguish the sun since the sun is the outcome of nuclear fission of hydrogen and helium gases. I would never say that the sun cannot be extinguished because science and technology are capable of doing so. Though it may take several decades to figure out how this is possible. I would really like to know why this distructive thought of extinguishing the sun came to your mind...

Answer 7

Since the Sun radiates away its heat, and radiation is the least efficient of the heat transfer methods, placing the Sun in a tub of water would draw heat away from the Sun much quicker. But like said earlier, the Sun is not like fire here on Earth. The Sun shines by fusing hydrgen into helium by the immense pressure at its core. Adding anything to the Sun is sure to increase that pressure and make it burn even brighter. And (just a guess...) since water is 2 hydrogen atoms, they'll probably get stripped away from the oxygen by the high heat so you'd only be adding more fuel to the fire + an oxidizer.


We have been asked by our mathematical modelling lecturer to calculate the quantity of water required to extinguish the sun. I'm pretty sure that the exact physics and processes of the sun are not required just the main properties, equations, etc..

It must be totally obvious that I have absolutely no knowledge of astrophysics at all and am just hoping that someone could possibly advise me on what I need to include for a reasonable answer.

Because the sun isn't powered by oxidation, but by nuclear reactions, putting water on the sun isn't going to slow it down much at all, in fact, adding *LOTS* of water would probably make the sun brighter.

That said, water extinguishes fire by two methods: cutting off oxygen, and cooling things down. You could try to approximate how much water at 0 degrees C it would take to cool the sun down to 100 degrees C.

Answer 8

Since the Sun radiates away its heat, and radiation is the least efficient of the heat transfer methods, placing the Sun in a tub of water would draw heat away from the Sun much quicker. But like said earlier, the Sun is not like fire here on Earth. The Sun shines by fusing hydrgen into helium by the immense pressure at its core. Adding anything to the Sun is sure to increase that pressure and make it burn even brighter. And (just a guess...) since water is 2 hydrogen atoms, they'll probably get stripped away from the oxygen by the high heat so you'd only be adding more fuel to the fire + an oxidizer.

Answer 9

If the sun is over 5780 K of temperature, it would take about 3 times the Earth's water of 0 K to extinguish the sun.

Answer 10

So far, there are about 67 elements that have been detected in the solar spectrum. Hydrogen (71%) and Helium (27.1%) are the major ones, considering the abundance (percentage of total mass).
The total mass of the sun is 1.989 x 1030 kg of gaseous body.
This puts the sun on the category of a Class C: flammable gases of the types of fires.
There are a number of differently coloured and filled extinguishers, each of which are designed for a specific type of fire. Water is not the best recommendation to extinguish the sun. The best solution is dry powder.

Answer 11

Infinite

Water, H20, would only add fuel to the fire of the sun. The sun isn't actually burning it is undergoing Hydrogen Fusion, which is so much hotter, it is like comparing kola bears and grizzly bears.

If water were poured on the sun it would break apart the bond of the hydrogen and oxygen and fuse the hydrogen getting hotter and bigger.

Then where would you get the water? Jupiter is roughly 100 times the size of the Earth and the sun is 100 times as large as Jupiter. If the sun was actually burning there isn’t enough water in our solar system to put out the sun.