If there was no sun, Earth would experience catastrophic changes making life impossible over time. The immediate effect would be darkness after about 8 minutes, corresponding to the time it takes sunlight to reach Earth. Without sunlight, photosynthesis would stop, causing plants to die and oxygen production to cease. Temperatures would drop rapidly, reaching freezing within a week and eventually plummeting to extreme cold levels where the oceans would freeze and the atmosphere could even freeze. Without the sun's gravitational pull, Earth and other planets would drift away into space, causing instability in planetary orbits. Ultimately, the planet would become an icy, lifeless rock drifting in the dark cosmos.
Immediate Effects
- After 8 minutes, Earth would be in total darkness.
- Photosynthesis stops immediately, ending oxygen production and food sources for most life forms.
- Plants and crops would soon die without sunlight.
Short to Medium Term Effects
- Temperatures would drop drastically: about freezing in one week, down to -75°C in one year.
- Oceans would begin to freeze from the surface, with some deep-sea life surviving in geothermal-warmed regions.
- Life on the surface would cease, and ecosystems would collapse.
Long Term Effects
- Average temperatures could drop as low as -219°C, continuing downward toward absolute zero.
- Earth's atmosphere gases could freeze and fall as snow.
- Earth would essentially become a frozen ice ball drifting through space due to loss of the sun's gravitational pull.
Gravitational Consequences
- The sun's gravity no longer holds Earth and other planets in orbit.
- Earth would travel in a straight line out of the solar system.
- Planetary orbits would destabilize, causing collisions or chaotic motion of celestial bodies.
This scenario underscores the sun's crucial role in providing light, heat, energy for photosynthesis, and gravitational stability for the solar system.
