Home▸Planetary Sciences & Astrogeology▸What If the Sun Disappeared? The First Eight Minutes and the Long Freeze

☀️ What If the Sun Disappeared? The First Eight Minutes and the Long Freeze

A thought experiment: the Sun vanishes instantly. Light and gravity news travel at the speed of light, so Earth keeps orbiting for 499 seconds, then flies off in a straight line while the surface slowly freezes.

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⚙ Under the hood

A thought experiment in which the Sun vanishes instantly: light and gravity changes travel at the speed of light, so Earth keeps orbiting for 499 seconds before flying off in a straight line at 29.8 km/s, while an energy-balance estimate shows the surface cooling from +15 C towards -150 C over about ten years.

speed of lightgravityorbitsenergy balancethought experiment

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