What would happen if the solar system had no sun?

Answer 1

Without thermal energy the Universe would never have formed.

Answer 2

There are examples of stars that are not in a state of thermal equilibrium, but first let us understand what the Sun is doing at the moment.

In the core of a star elements, under the pressure of the enormous graviton compression are fusing light elements into heavier elements, all the elements in the Periodic Table up to the element Iron can be produced by these fusion processes. The starting point are the elements in the gas cloud form which the Sun (star) formed and these clouds are made mainly of the element Hydrogen. Thus in the beginning in the core of stars hydrogen in fused into helium and stars doing this are called 'main sequence stars'.

When hydrogen is fused into helium the helium formed has slightly less mass than the hydrogen that went into forming it and this mass loss is converted into pure energy as described by Einstein (E=MC2). This energy tries to blow up the star but gravity keeps pulling it back together and the star reaches a stable size with the energy coming to the surface of the star and radiating into space as light.

In our Sun's case it takes about a million years for the energy formed in the core of the star to reach the surface and escape, thus the thermal equilibrium of the sun is balanced over that time-scale.

Later in the star's life, the hydrogen in the core gets used up and the star begins fusing the helium it has made, to do this the core gets hotter and the star therefore expands to become a red giant. At this point the star leaves the main sequence.

As the core evolves making heavier and heavier elements the outer layers of the star can sometimes block the light leaving the star and the star can be come a variable star, changing its size and brightness regularly. Eventually the star will either blow off its outer layers and become a white dwarf star or it may explode to form a supernova.

Answer 3

If the sun disappeared, for eight-and-a-half minutes we'd have no idea that the sun had gone. We'd still see it - lingering, like a ghost - in the sky above Earth's day side. As soon as the last of the sun's light reached us - eight-and-a-half minutes after the sun itself disappeared - the sun would blink out and night would fall over the entire Earth.

Not until that instant would Earth sail off in a straight line into space. Einstein's special theory of relativity tells us that no signal in the universe - not even the tug of gravity - can travel faster than the speed of light - about 300,000 kilometers, or 186,000 miles, per second. Though free from the sun's gravity, we'd be traveling at the same speed as before - about 18 miles, or 30 kilometers per second. So Earth would be traveling at the same speed as always into eternal night.

If you were on Earth's night side when the sun disappeared, you might not notice anything … at first. But then the night sky would begin to change. For example, if there were a full moon - which shines with reflected sunlight - its light would disappear a few seconds after the sun's light blinked out. Over the course of several hours, the planets would wink out one by one, as they reflected the last of the sun's light to us.

Answer 4

Without the sun, there would be no source of heat and light in the solar system. This would cause temperatures to plummet, resulting in freezing conditions on all the planets. Without the sun's gravitational pull, the planets would no longer orbit, eventually drifting off into space. Life on Earth would be unable to survive without the sun's energy for photosynthesis.

Answer 5

The planets would never have formed in the first place, there would be no solar system.

Answer 6

There would be no solar system.

Answer 7

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