How long could human race survive without the sun?

Question

Just imagine the sun would stop shining, without exploding. It would just totally disappear without causing harm. How long would human race survive without the benefits of the sun? 10 minutes? 10 hours? 10 days? Could it stand the cold longer? How long would it take for the atmosphere to get below zero degrees?

Answer 1

For most...... Maybe 3 or 4 days. There might be a few who could survive for a few weeks. During that time they might even be able to scrounge up enough equipment to survive a bit longer. But it's doubtful that anyone would survive much more than a few months.

Doug

Answer 2

As said above, at least 8 minutes and 19 seconds (it's a mean time for light to reach earth from the sun). Then the question is, how long will it take until everything is frozen. For example, the temperature on the moon varies between 130 Celsius degrees during day, and -150 Celsius degrees during night. It changes very fast because the moon doesn't have an atmosphere, which is not the case on earth.
It would be interesting to get the point of view of a geothermic specialist, who would analyze all of this. Because my idea is that none of us would have enough time to react, and I think we would all die pretty fast.
If it isn't the case, and we have time (a few days would be enough I think) to go deep down under the earth, then everything can be imagined.

Answer 3

Not unless you put something equivalent in its place. If you simply removed the Sun, then within a few days to weeks the Earth would freeze over and become uninhabitable to humans. It is conceivable that a few humans might survive if they managed to get into a pressurized self-sustaining habitat soon enough, however the vast majority of humans would be killed by the cold and/or the changing composition of the atmosphere.

Answer 4

The human race could probably survive indefinitely by going underground. The geothermal energy of the earth would be enough to keep significant numbers of humans alive for millions of years, if necessary.

I wouldn't want to judge the quality of life of the survivors, but in theory there is nothing that would not allow humans to bury in and survive. I let you figure out how this can be accomplished technically.

Answer 5

Cheney could probably sit it out for a few years in his bunker...