How long would we last without the sun?

Answer 1

instant death, sorry?!

Answer 2

Interesting question as we can never prove or disprove the answer but here goes. As the sun is our primary source of light and heat, and it takes light a whopping 8 min 48 sec to get here, we would know that the sun abandoned us almost nine mins late, and at that the world would go dark, and a deep freeze unlike anything ever fathomed would soon ensue. Soon being probably within 5 mins or so as radiant heat energy from the earth and water would help dampen the blow for a couple moments. This deep freeze would most likely be in the area of about -200 celcius. maybe lower. If the sun were to disappear, I don;t think that we would ever have the chance to realize it. Hope this "shed some light" on it.

Answer 3

Depends on how the sun "went away".

If it somehow just vanished, there's no telling how long we might last before everyone froze, could be days, could be months even years. It is even possible that some people might find ways to survive without the sun.

If the sun blew up (nova, supernova, becomes a red giant, whatever) we'd last about 8 minutes before the blast hit earth and incinerated everyone and everything in an instant.

Answer 4

Assuming the sun didn't blow us up...

Temperatures fall during the night. Near the coastlines they fall about 5 degrees. Inland they fall up to 20 degrees. (Fahrenheit) coastal temperatures are usually more moderate and inland tempuratures are more extreme.

Coastal temperatures starting at 75 degrees would reach freezing in (75-10x=32) days. Inland temperatures starting at 90 degrees would reach freezing in (90-40x=32) days. The temperature would keep going down - until nearly absolute zero was reached. The Earth's core would continue to provide some heat.

Water temperatures in oceans cool more slowly. Ocean temps generally range from 15 to 30 degrees Celsius. A sink rate of 1/2 a degree per night = 1 degree per day in a situation where there is no sunlight.

Colder ocean water will begin to freeze in about 2 weeks. Warmer ocean water will start to freeze in about one month. The deeper water will not freeze for a long time as the frozen layer on top will provide some insulation from the cold air above.

Air liquefies at about -173C. The air would reach this temp at (100-5x=-173) Of course all life would be long dead by that time.

;-D All formulas are off the top of my head, and are not guaranteed for accuracy! But no matter what, it will just get colder and colder!

Answer 5

it would take about 8 minutes from the moment the sun disappeared, before the last rays sent from the sun reached earth, and we were aware of it

although some systems might have detected the absence of the sun's gravity field earlier

after that, the earth would cool very quickly

most people would be dead in a few days

there have been interesting science fiction stories about people surviving in similar situations using nuclear energy to support a small amount of life

it would be like living on one of the cold inhospitable planets like neptune, but with resources more available

Answer 6

If the sun suddenly died out, we wouldn't last very long at all, maybe a week or two at most. If the sun never did exist, Earth would be a barren planet, completely devoid of life.

Answer 7

Not very long. Without the sun, the world would soon turn into a rocky ball of ice similar to Pluto.

Answer 8

Not very long. Plants would not grow, therefore no oxygen, no breathing. Also, we humans need the sun for certain vitamins. Without plants, we have no animals, without animals we have no food.

ALSO, no sun = no energy...no energy = no light...etc.....

Therefore we would not last very long without the sun. The sun is the center of the universe!!!

Answer 9

About 8 minutes. That's when the lack of gravity provided by the sun would tear the earth apart. That's also the amount of time it takes for light to get from there to here.

Answer 10

Well, that would depend on how the sun stopped being there.
If it just suddenly blinked out of existance, we wouldn't know it for 8 minutes. Then it would be VERY dark, and get VERY cold. We'd probably last a few hours, maybe days, then we would freeze (along with the oceans and eventually the atmosphere itself)

Answer 11

We won't. As the sun gets hotter and hotter before going supernova and dying out, it will boil away all of the water as well as fry us and everything else. So we will never be here to see a day with no sun.