If/when our sun burns out and we are knocked out of orbit, is it possible to be pulled into another stars'?

Question

would the earth be destroyed by the sun's explosion?

Answer 1

The part about the Sun burning up has been answered plenty. The recapture of Earth by another star is, to me, a more interesting thing to ponder.

First, the Sun must disappear so Earth can be freed of the gravitational pull. The Earth travels around the Sun at 66000 mph so it would travel through space at that speed. At that speed, we could reach the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, in only 41000 years. In order to be captured by another star, Earth must pass about as close to the star as our current distance from the Sun. Passing that close to Proxima Centauri at its distance of 4.2 light years is like hitting a target with a diameter of 1/32" from a distance of 100 yards --- without aiming!

The odds of doing that are about 1 in 270,000,000,000. If we figure that stars are all about that same 4.2 light years apart, we can expect a 50-50 chance of being captured by another star in only 7,000,000,000,000,000 years or 500,000 times the age of the universe.

In short, it will be a cold long trip.

Answer 2

Ok, the kind of star our sun is isn't likely to explode when it dies. At least, not right away. Projections state that the sun will gradually increase in size to become a red giant, which will devour Mercury and Venus, and the gravitational force will strip Earth of its atmosphere - very similarly to what the Sun does to Mercury. So if there are people still left on Earth at that time, we had all better relocate or we'll fry. After that point, the sun will shrink and probably supernova, but as I said, unless we all leave, we'll die of the heat and radiation.

However, if we are knocked out of orbit, we'll all die of cold because there won't be solar radiation to heat the planet. We are not close enough to any other stars that we would get pulled in. Whatever rotational velocity the planet still had would carry it off into the wild black yonder, but I seriously doubt that it would take so little time to reach another star that the stored heat in the Earth's crust would keep life on Earth alive until we were sucked into a different orbit.

So to answer your question, humankind is not likely to survive our sun dying unless we can relocate out of the solar system. Luckily we have a few millenia to plot our escape.

Answer 3

It will probably not be knocked out of orbit. It takes another star to do that, and that is highly unlikely.

The Sun will turn into a red giant, as big as Earth's orbit, and the Earth wii either be vaporized in the Sun, if its surface reaches the Earth, or it will escape the Sun by going into a bigger orbit; in that case it will turn into a frozen cinder after the sun puffs out a planetary nebula, forever circling around a feeble white dwarf.

Answer 4

everyone seemed to be answering to the fact if sun's burns out, i am not sure whether it resolves ur second part of the question.

"is it possible to be pulled into another stars.", are u asking whether earth can be pulled into another system or another sun/star?

lets say, if we do survive all the burning hell of the red giant, then we managed to swirve away from the explosion/implosion of the super nova and we get kocked out of the orbit ( as u wished ), techinally we still would die as now the earth would be rotating in different axis ( screwing things up on earth) and it would be travelling away at a faster speed ( again screwing things up on earth) and then we try to get pulled into another system; the nearest would be alpha centauri ( now count the chances of u getting exactly knocked out to the path towards this system), this system is 4.35light yrs away ( now try calculating how long it would take to get to reach there in the first place ), and then this system is a triple star system, hopefully u get into the right position to substain any life which is left over after this ordeal.

yes it is possible to be pulled into another system ( if there is anything left out ) and well, possible to be pulled into another star, but that means we will crash and burn ino the star.. we might well as do that with out star ( SUN ) why bother going thru all these to end up in the same state.

Answer 5

The short answer is Earth would stay in orbit, although it would be fried in any explosion.

The long answer is that even if the Sun burns out it will still have gravity and will keep the Earth in orbit. Even a supernova leaves a core. That remnant is small compared to the original star but still giant compared to a planet, so there would probably still be enough gravity to keep the planets from escaping.

Answer 6

Absolutely, that is the way scientists think the Earth will end!

The sun will heat up causing the earth's temperatures to rise (it'll be a red giant) and become uninhabitable for us to live and then it will burn out to become a "cool star", the sun's lava filled interior (core) will become a hard metal, because it will have cooled down.

We wont be knocked out into orbit, but if we were to do so, we'd prbably be one of Jupiter's moons.

Answer 7

The earth will burn before the sun burns out because as the sun dies it gets larger and therefore closer to earth.

Second if it just all of sudden collapsed like on a sci-fi movie there are no stars close enought to exert gravitational pull we would be like stone out of a sling shot. Which wouldn't matter because we would all sub-zero frozen.

Answer 8

The sun is too small to "go nova". It will expand and overtake the Earth's orbit to become a red giant. During that period, oceans will boil, mountains will melt, and other generally bad stuff will ensue...

Answer 9

Since when will we be knocked out of orbit? Our sun is not going to explode. I'd suggest brushing up on stellar evolution.

Answer 10

No, because when the sun goes red giant, it will get large enough to eat the earth. Nothing to worry about for a while -- that's five billion years away.