What if our sun died without collapsing into a black hole and earth flew out of orbit. Is that possible?

Question

Writing a fictional book that I want to be based in fact.

Answer 1

Yes and No...It's very likely that our Sun will die without forming a black hole, but it's not likely that the Earth will float out into space and still be able to sustain any kind of life. The Sun is expected to become a red giant in about 4.5 billion years. It is calculated that the Sun will become almost sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of some of the solar system's inner planets, including Earth. However, the gravitational pull of the Sun will have weakened by then due to its loss of mass, and all planets but Mercury will escape to a wider orbit. Earth's biosphere will be destroyed as the Sun gets brighter while its hydrogen supply becomes depleted. The extra solar energy will cause the oceans to evaporate to space, causing Earth's atmosphere to become temporarily similar to that of Venus, before its atmosphere also gets driven off into space.

So basically, if the sun turned into a Red Giant, the Earth's surface and life as we know it would be incinerated, then once all of the hydrogen in the Sun burned up, the Sun would reduce in size becoming a White Dwarf, then the crispy remains of the Earth would float away in space until it found a new star or planet to orbit around.

Answer 2

B) Continue to orbit normally. Warning: the following is Newtonian Physics only (which works if you're far enough away from the sun, such as the Earth's Orbit). Gravitational pull is a function of mass (the earth's and the sun's) and distance only. If the sun collapses into a black hole, it doesn't gain mass. The mass it has is simply taking up a smaller volume. The Earth's Mass does change, and the distance between the Earth and Sun's do not change. Therefore, there is no change in Earth's orbit.

Answer 3

I think that I know what you're getting at, probably your plot revolves around the earth being captured by some other star, or a desperate struggle for a source of energy [:)]??

Anyway, although its not possible with the Earth (THE SUN IS going to become a RED GIANT and engulf the Earth), It might happen with some planet like pluto (forgive me---i referred to it as a planet purely out of habit).

This would be because of the solar mass ejection wherein the obese(!) sun that becomes a gas giant would blow off and lose most of its lighter gas consituents at the death. (a result of an imbalance between the expansion force due to the heat and the contractive force due to gravity) That's how there's an abundant supply of hydrogen and some small amounts of helium in nebulae. (Its kind of ironical that a star in its death spawns nebulae for the birth of other stars---like the mythological phoenix). Such an ejection would lead to a drastic decrease in mass. Even if we were to assume that the force of such an explosion and the momentum transferred by the out-rushing flow of gas onto the planet were negligible, the centripetal force (for the planet's orbital motion) due to the star's gravitational would decrease and the planet would be thrown off. At this point, depending on the mass loss, and the initial kinetic energy of the planet; it might be flung into a farther orbit, or might completely escape.

But, to burst the balloon that I just blew for you, I'd wager all my money on any planet (of this system or extrasolar) blowing into smithereens during a stellar nova (explosion of a star).

But since you're sticking to fiction, you could probably discus an earth like object in the Oort cloud / Kuiper belt (of comet nucleii and asteroids) that lies beyond the orbit of Pluto and Charon.

PS: If you're ever done with the book, mail me a copy!! It'll keep my thoughts from dwelling on far worse issues :)

Answer 4

From what I know, the Sun does not contain enough mass to collapse into a black hole. The end of our sun's life will come when it is turned into a white dwarf. As for Earth, it shall be incinerated when the Sun reaches the red giant phase of it's life. The Sun shall swell and grow to such a size that the Earth, Venus, and Mercury will be englufed by it.

Answer 5

This is not possible. Given the sun's size and chemical makeup, it will not collapse into a black hole; rather, it will swell into a gas giant that will reach in size roughly the orbit of Mars. If you are looking for a way to spin the Earth off into space, I'd suggest a gravitational tug of war with another star.

Answer 6

The only way the Earth could fly out of its orbit is of the mass of the Sun were substantially decreased, or there were a very nearby passage of another star. The first is possible only if the Sun expanded or exploded beyond the orbit of the Earth. A nearby passage of another star could do what you want---throw Earth off into interstellar space. This is possible but highly unlikely.

Answer 7

Our sun will die without becoming a black hole, It's too small. A few billion years for now as its fuel starts to run out it will start to swell, swallowing all the inner planets including Earth it will become a Red Giant and then a Red Supergiant before collapsing to become a White Dwarf. Eventually it will die and just become a dark body.

Answer 8

Our sun is too small to collapse into a black hole. Our sun would "die" be going nova, which means that it would expand until it grew thousands of times its normal size, and eventually would engulf the Earth.

At some point, before the sun swallowed up the Earth, the atmosphere would be blown away andall life would be burned up.

Answer 9

Well I believe the next step for the sun is to turn into a red Giant in a Billion years or so, that will torch the earth for us so need to worry about the orbit.

Answer 10

No....

The sun will retain it's mass until it finally dies, and swells to be a red giant.

For Earth to 'fly out of it's orbit', you need to steal the sun's mass. Very, very difficult to do.