Theoretically, if the Sun where to suddenly cease to burn, how long would it take for earth to freeze solid.?

Question

Would the oceans freeze solid, how cold would the earths surface get! I have discussed this with many people and everyone has there own est. amont of time from 24 hours to three months.

Answer 1

First it would take roughly 8.3 minutes for people on the planet to realize that the sun was gone. It takes that long for the light of the sun to reach us.

The loss of the sun would mean there is no longer anything pulling us, keeping us in an orbit, so the planet would slowly spin off, possibly leaving the galaxy (unless we happened to be lucky enough to get "snagged" by another sun.

It would take about a month for the heat stored in the surface of the Earth to dissipate. Since the interior of the Earth is so hot, and the temperature of the universe so cold (2.7 K), the surface temperature would probably drop to around 200 K and remain there for billions of years, maintained by the energy from the interior of the earth.

Everything on the planet would soon begin to die from either the cold or lack of breathable air. Soon the world would look very much like the icy moon of Saturn.

There may also be a threat of the moon (which is orbiting us, but is also affected by the gravitaional pulls of the sun) possibly banging into us. More than likely it will slow in its orbit and simply either "wander" off on it's own or just trail behind us as we move, no longer orbiting the earth.

Answer 2

The sun "burns" by nuclear fusion in its core center. Estimates as long as 30,000 years have been calculated for at least portions of this heat to rise 400,000 miles through the sun's interior to the surface. Therefore, at least the last gasps of solar power might still be evident 30,000 years from now. Also, with the primary heat source of the sun gone, the sun would generate heat by contracting for tens of thousands of years. The earth tho, would begin freezing before that. Of course the earth's oceans would freeze almost solid probably thousands of years before the last remnants of heat came from the sun. I say "almost" because there would be heat energy coming from the earth itself, most evident near underwater volcanos which would have enough heat to keep some of the water that would normally freeze in a liquid state. Surface volcanos could keep local air temperatures above the cooling planetary air temperatures of the earth. But with the sun giving increasingly less energy, & air temperatures falling below -300 degrees Fahrenheit, large portions of the earth's atmosphere would freeze & fall to the ground. And the earth's surface temperatures would continue to fall, towards -400 degrees, then towards absolute zero, around -459 degrees Fahrenheit. These falling surface temperatures would begin cooling even the earth's lower crust & possibly parts of the mantle. However, at some point the earth's center temperatures(which are generated in large part by radioactive fissioning materials & its own heat of contraction) would stop the decrease of earth's outer layer temperatures. In short, the earth has a good chance that its interior would NOT freeze solid. The fissioning materials might provide heat for the earth's interior for billions of years, even tho the earth's surface might be hovering just above absolute zero.

Answer 3

It would definitely take more than 6 days for the earth to freeze solid, God or no God.

When the oceans began to be capped with a layer of ice that would trap heat internal in the ocean and keep it from freezing for some time. One would have to calculate the amount of heat being lost through an increasingly thick layer of ice to determine the amount of time it would take to completely freeze the ocean.

But even then there would be isolated areas where the ocean was not frozen because of underwater volcanic activity.

The earth has a tremendous amount of internal heat that comes from its core that would continue to provide heat for millions of years. Perhaps billions of years more before the internal heat was all lost.

But the surface land area would freeze quickly worldwide. Again you would need to do some calculations. Which, I repeat, does not contain any variables for God in it. Religion has nothing of value to contribute to science other than standing as an example of what results from utter ignorance.

Answer 4

That's a good question!! I'd guess the oceans would start to freeze over even in the tropics after a week or two. There would be no wind and the oceans would be calm. The oceans themselves wouldn't freeze solid for 1000s years.

Answer 5

assume:
crustal mass = 1.3567E+23*kg
specific heat = 1.5 cal/gm-K
temperature drop = 25 K
blackbody radiation @273K = 1.2882E+17W

time to cool to 273K ~ 5000 years

Answer 6

It would take about 6 days... the same length of time it took god to create it!