If the Sun was knocked out via collision, how quickly would Earth feel the effects?

Question

Consider light year speeds (and other units of measure related to physics that I know nothing about), Earth's orbit, resources we have on earth. Would our orbit come to a stand still or just spin off in one direction?

Answer 1

Anything large enough to 'knock out' the Sun would screw us up on this planet long before it got that close. Only another object of stellar mass could do it, and its gravity would screw up the solar system long before it hit the Sun.

Answer 2

Keeping the answer simple:

8 minutes after the sun was "knocked out" the earth would no longer be bound in an eliptical orbit... it would "be released from it's rope" and "spin off in one direction" forever bound to our galaxy's "gravity" rope... the lack of a sun would quickly kill off most of the earth's plants - starving 99.999% of the animals to death and freezing the rest, the oceans would freeze solid and the earth would no longer be a very nice place to live

Couple of things: whatever "knocked out" the sun would have a profound effect on the earth... the object could alter the earth even before the sun was "knocked out"

good luck

Answer 3

According to present science, the speed of gravity is nearly the same as the speed of light. So by simple calculation, Earth would feel the effects in approximately 8 minutes same as when light of the sun turns out.