Do you think that it is physically possible for the sun to exist without shining?

Question

In other words, is the sun's radiance an accidental or an essential property of the sun?

I am asking in the philosophy section because my question really concerns properties as the added details in the little box make it known. Certain properties belonging to an object or thing are accidental (although this point is nuanced in Thomas Aquinas) and others are essential. As an example, the baldness of Socrates is accidental but his risibility is not.

c2,

you are correct about the relationship between light from the sun or stars and hydrogen fusion, but you did not answer the specific question I asked.

Third P,

By "essential property," I mean a property that the sun cannot lack and still be the sun. Kinda like Socrates' risibility. You seem pretty knowledgeable about stars, so let me ask you another question. Isn't it true that stars experience birth and death? Is it not the case that our sun was "born" at one time and it is believed that it will die one day? At what point did our sun become the sun? Was the entity that we know as the sun born shining or did it eventually come to shine? If there was ever a time when the sun did not shine, then the sun's property of shining is not an essential property but an accidental one, like Socrates' baldness.

Maybe we should distinguish between the apparent visible shining of the sun (observer-dependent) and immanent shining that may or may not be visible to observers.

Answer 1

I would say the sun wouldn't be a sun if it didn't radiate the way it does.

Answer 2

Let me put it this way. Without sunshine, the Earth would be cold, dark and dead. Therefore all of us will be long gone. The sun's radiance is indeed an essential property of the sun. Like all stars, the Sun's energy generates by nuclear fusion reactions taking place under the extreme conditions in the core. This core is c.400,000 km. across. Energy released from the core passes up through the radioactive zone, which is c.3000,000 km thick, then passes through the 200,000 km thick convective zone to the surface, the Photosphere, which radiates into space.

Let me answer you partly on your succeeding questions. The Sun is about 5 billion years old and half way through its life - as a medium-sized star it will probably lived for around 10 billion years. Over the next few billion years the sun will brighten and swell until it is twice as bright and 50 % bigger. In 5 billion years, the sun's hydrogen fuel will burned out, and its core will start to shrink. As it does shrinks, the rest of the Sun will swell u with gases and its surface will become cooler and redder. It will be a red giant star.
The Earth will have been burned to a cinder long before the sun is big enough to swallow it up completely. Then the Sun you are asking will end as a white dwarf.

Answer 3

I like Globar's answer about the cloud, because it implies that if we can't see the sun shining then it is not shining. It implies that the shine is relative to someone being able to see it shine, which is kind of like one of the most well known philosophical questions, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Likewise if no one sees the sun shining, is it shining? If it's night time and I can't see the sun shining, but people on the other side of the world can, does the sun still exist? It's only because of faith that I know that morning will come and the sun will shine again.

Answer 4

Our sun has three possible forms: releasing light due to the energy released as hydrogen combines to form helium, as a supernova, or as a black hole. Given the size and type of the star, it is more likely to end as a supernova than as a black hole. Therefore, the sun will probably exist with shining right through it death.

Answer 5

The gold shines, when poured out of a melting pot!
Humans shine, when they courageously undergo a gruelling ordeal.
The energy poured out of something that burns out is symbolised to be 'shining', to serve as a motivation. Otherwise, it is just physics & chemistry with laws governing it.
Blind persons do not get to see the radiance, they can only feel it, at the best.

Answer 6

My thought on the very deep question is this. Its like this, an like that, an like this ,an uh. Seriously now. Possibilities know no boundaries, therefor.the sun very well could exist without shining. If you pick my answer, ill be yr best friend!!!!

Answer 7

i like this question :). i think of that that's available. There could be somebody obtainable who has lived the life to the fullest and hasn't regreted something they have performed. people who could consistently stay interior the scientific institution because of the fact of wellness circumstances continuously seem to have enjoyed the life they have been residing. Yeah, i think of that's available.

Answer 8

Actually, from space, out of the earth's sphere, the sun appears blue, in total darkness.
it's the sphere that surrounds the earth that reflects the rays of the sun and turn them into light..

Answer 9

That's a physics question. I dunno.

Wait. It's obvious. For the sun to EXIST? What if it evolves into a stellar body that does not emit light, but it is still called the sun simply because nobody ever changed its name? It still would exist, it wouldn't shiine, and it is still called the sun.

Is that physically POSSIBLE? I can't see why not.

Answer 10

Hawking radiation exists,perhaps, even for black holes. That's not much for the daffodils, but is still a form of shining.

Answer 11

Since you are asking in philosophy , I will take it as a metaphor .... Yes we are all suns , and exist with out shining ...