If the sun was not there, would life be possible on earth?

Question

The magma produces heat and continuous light, so even a sort photosynthesis would be possible for (red?) plants basically. Mmmmm.

existenz4: I suggest that magma itself produces the heat, because a lot of elements, if not all, are found in rocks which come from magma, and many of them give exothermic reactions+light. Since the earth's core is a closed system, it's energy must be (sort of) renewable.

Answer 1

Not life as we know it. There would no longer be liquid water.

If the sun wasn't there, the earth would have no gravity holding it in place and would stop revolving. It would still rotate and the sun does slightly affect tides so we'd change ocean movements, etc.

Studies that they did on Mars (via computers..not actually on Mars), which still gets some sun, but not as much, showed that even blue algae and lichens could not survive because of the extreme temperature.

Plus, the majority of our energy on earth comes from the sun. Living underground is a possibility, but we'd lose so much heat to space, very quickly, because we wouldn't have a fluid atmosphere anymore. Higher elements would freeze and we'd have an "atmosphere" similar pluto.

edit (from my link): "Scientists are still not sure about what provides the heat in the Earth's core. It might come from some of the iron becoming solid and joining the inner core, or perhaps it is generated by radioactivity, like the heat of the Earth's crust. The flows are very slow, and the energy involved is just a tiny part of the total heat energy contained in the core. "

edit 2: As pattiefish said, the earth's core releases it's energy via EM waves (as well as radiation). It would not be enough to keep the earth warm enough or have enough light/photons to allow for plants to photosynthesize. Again, the example of pluto is probably one that works best. Even though it is no longer a planet and is called 134340.

The reason magma "produces" heat is because it comes from a deeper part of the earth where pressure increases temperature. Thus, when it travels to the surface and becomes lava it releases that heat into the atmosphere. Rocks that come out in magma/lava are produced in extreme pressure and high temperature. It's energy is not renewable because of the laws of physics. Even a close system rarely ever will decrease in entropy. And without another energy source from some other part of the universe, the earth will eventually expell all it's energy into space contributing to the overall increase in entropy of the universe.

edit 3: and since the seas/oceans would freeze (even the heat from volcanic activity unless we has as much as Io -one of jupiter's moons, which we don't, would not be enough to prevent this), chemotrophs would have no where to get their carbon dioxide, methane, etc because it would either freeze or become liquid like liquid oxygen or nitrogen...

Answer 2

I’m not a biologist, but I can tell you that the energy source for life on Earth comes from the sun and not the molten core. The molten core does provide protection from the harmful solar wind by creating a magnetic “force field” around the Earth. Without this magnetic field the solar wind would simply blow our atmosphere into outer space. It is believed that this is what happened to Mars about two billion years ago when its molten core cooled and no longer provide a magnetic field. Earths molten core is actually made of iron; the movement of the iron (think of boiling water) is how the magnetic field is created. The solar wind is made of charged particles which react to the magnetic field and are deflected away from the atmosphere (think of how metal shavings on a piece of paper move when a magnet is placed underneath).

Answer 3

The chemotrophs couldn't care less about the sun. They derive their energy from molecules produced during volcanic activity. The same volcanic activity that would keep some fraction of the earth's water liquid in the absence of a sun.

Now, the real question is this.. could there be an earth with no sun. The answer is no. Earth formed out of the sun's accretion disk and so no sun... no earth... no life on uh' er.. it.

Answer 4

There would be no magma, because without the sun, the Earth would be like and arctic wasteland, much too cod to sustain any life. It would be too cold, therefore resulting in magma cooling to become rock.

Answer 5

The earth would become a block of ice, volcanic hot spots notwithstanding, and without the gravity of the sun to anchor the center of the universe, would go spinning off into the void.
Whoopeee!

Answer 6

It might be possible for some plants to survive like you said, but the possibility is very low. With that in mind less plants mean less herbivores which means no us or other predators. With less predators herbivores would drastically increase completely wiping out the producer population, thus, ending life. Overall, the sun is a major contributor to our existence.

Answer 7

nowadays, we have electricity already, without sun we just have more uncomfortable, i think, life still goes on for human
we can plant with electric light instead of sunlight, some where in my country they do it to improve their productivity, so i think we still have plant
for meat, of course we can raise cattle in cage with different food instead of grass, but i think we would have plant so grass is just a small thing
for animal, life gonna be harder, but they must have something like metamorphosis to adapt themselves to circumstance that they won't have sun anymore
life would be harder, the theory that sun will be extinct, maybe it would happen, but for this thing happens, we have a lot of time to prepare for it, maybe at that time science will have something more than electricity to keep life goes on

Answer 8

Little to no chance. All life forms would eventually become extinct. Earth would become so frozen that nothing could move, even the smallest and most basic life form.

Answer 9

true but what plants could survive that close to the earths core (massive amounts of heat)...i think the only kind of life would be the psychrophil bacteria...the ones that like the extremes in conditions.

Answer 10

I think small plants would live if the sun was never there...We would never have come to be..scientifically speacking.I belive in God,so if he[or she] wanted for us to be,we would live.