How long would it take for the earth to freeze if the sun burnt out?

Answer 1

It wouldn't. The Sun, as it dies, would grow large enough for the Earth to be vapourized. You might get to find out if you lived on Pluto though.

Answer 2

I understand that this is just a hypothetical question. We all know that the sun is just not going to burn out, right? But thanks for everybody for pointing this out.

I think this is a very good question and it is not all obvious to me exactly what would happen.

Pretty clearly, though, things would get cold and icy, sooner rather than later. Picture the polar ice caps, but darker and colder.

It would not be a difficult question to work out the amount of thermal energy in the atmosphere and oceans (and I suppose a little in the top few feet of soil) and know how long it would take to radiate away. Somebody should do this calculation.

I can imagine that it will be like mid-winter in a matter of days, and the deepest, worst ice-age ever in a few weeks to a month.

I think it would take quite a long time for the oceans to freeze solid. Six months? A year? Something like that. This is a complete guess.

But we do know that the earth has its internal heat. Geothermal energy, volcanos, black smokers - these are entirely independent of the sun. The earth isn't going to be at absolute zero anytime soon, at least not underground. The volcanos are still there after 5 billion years - they aren't going to cool off of their own accord.



You can imagine that, in climate controlled domes, we could survive a long time. Do you remember a tv show called 'Space 1999'? Explosions drive the moon away from earth orbit, and there is a manned (and womanned) moon base. They survived without any apparent problems, because they were already equipped for an extreme environment. We can survive in antarctica because we have energy to provide heat. We can grow food with hydroponics and electric lights.

It's an interesting idea. Time for another movie or tv series to explore it, I think!

Answer 3

The sun will burn out in about 5 billion years so I wouldn't worry about panic-buying portable heaters just yet!

Actually, the sun will go the opposite way and inflate, engulfing all the inner planets before eventually becoming a red dwarf.

If the sun were to suddenly pop out of existence it will take 9 or so minutes for the energy to stop hitting the earth.

As for some who say it will take an hour to freeze are, in my opinion, mistaken. If that were the case why don't we freeze every night of the year?

Or maybe I'm getting the wrong end of the stick :-(

Answer 4

The Earth continuously receives enormous amounts of energy from the Sun. Averaged over an entire year and the entire Earth, the sun deposits 342W of energy into every square meter of the Earth. This is a very large amount of heat—4.4 x 10^16 watts of power that the sun sends to the Earth/atmosphere system.In order to balance this, much of it is radiated back into space.

If the Sun stopped emitting energy, the last photons would hit the Earth 9 minutes later. The Earth would continue to radiate thermal energy, but would not be receiving any.

We could do a rough approximation, but I would think it would probably be less than an hour before the Earth froze over.

Answer 5

Great answer Ken O. It is worth pointing out that the amount of energy the sun recieves is the same as it radiates back into space. Otherwise the temperature would be rising or falling (global warming can be ignored on this scale and I'll tell you forwhy)

At about 10^16W, the earths atmosphere at a constant density depth of 10km, and a consequent density of approx 4.pi.r^2.10,000 and a specific heat capacity of 900J.kg^-1.K^-1, it becomes possible to estimate the initial rate of cooling (r=6.4x10^6, pi=3.14...)
The rate of cooling is directly proportional to the temperature differnce between itself and the surroundings. Since the universe is approximately 3K, we can also calculate the rate of cooling over time.
However, within a year, the earth would clearly be only a few degrees above absolute zero.

Answer 6

Great answer from Ken O...freezing conditions would prevail across the globe in just a few days. Most life could not survive for more than a few weeks because, indeed, much of the atmosphere itself would "freeze out." Perhaps a few bands of resourceful humans could enclose themsleves within pressurized nuclear-powered underground bunkers for a few years, though it would be difficult for them to build such environments without notice.

Interestingly enough, given the internal heat of the Earth, it's likely that microbes living far underground could survive for a very long time. Perhaps even the areas around "black smokers" on the ocean floor could sustain life for a long time, since they do not rely on heat or light from the sun.

Answer 7

The answer is a lot simpler than most people realise.

Every day (or more exactly, every night) we know exactly what it would be like if there were no Sun. The temperature seems to drop maybe 15 degrees C or 30 degrees F overnight at most.
If we assume that this drop is linear, then the temperature would drop 30 degrees C or 60 degrees F at most in 24 hours.
(Cloudy places, areas near oceans, hotter areas, whichever hemisphere was in summer, and cities might cool a bit slower for a while, maybe only 15 or 20 dergees C per day)

So probably within 3 days, even if you stayed inside, it would be too cold for most people to keep warm, even if it were summer. Within a week, the air would actually start to freeze.

Answer 8

When the Sun burns out it will go Nova before it does. When it goes Nova it will incinerate the entire planet blowing all the atmosphere and everything on the surface away.

If would get cold some time afterwards but there would be nothing left of freeze.

Answer 9

Hi. If you ever get to watch a solar eclipse you will notice a temperature drop right away. This indicates that for the Earth to freeze (reach 32 Deg F or 0 deg C) would not take long at all.

Answer 10

difficult question becasue if the sun burnt out the surface would collapse into the middle causing a huge explosion (A mini nova) that massive explosion would probably consume Mecury, Venus, and maybe Earth too. when the Sun eventually died, there would be no earth left to freeze.