How long would it take for us to freeze to death if the sun went out?

It won't. Worry about real stuff. Like how we r going to fix this mess they have made of our country. Everything will be alright love, x

8 minutes

3 days

Since when did the sun shine at night, other than moonlight? And you think heat off the ocean keeps you from freezing to death at night? Who is the dipshit here? Do they have schools in Mexico?

After the sun goes down. Now that is funny. The sun never goes down just the other side of the planet faces it but still gets it radiance and heat. Light takes 8 mins to get to earth. If the sun was to stop then it would be a huge explosion/implosion and we would have about 8 mins to live.

lol, sun going down was just a figure of speech. I assume OP meant no explosion/implosion. Of course that would change everything.

Last Edited by Bob_Loblaw on 11/12/2012 08:37 PM

I would think it would take weeks. Doesn't Alaska go without sunlight for 30 days or so a year? I would day a few weeks and then we would just become an ice-ball.

Um, the Sun is still shining at night, on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET. And yes, since over seventy percent of said planet is covered with water, and water is a terrific absorber of heat, the ocean acts as a huge heat sink and it IS what keeps your dumb ass from freezing at night, since it doesn't cool off anywhere near as fast as the land does.

Ever been to the desert? Since there is no water at all, it gets freezing cold immediately at night, after being blazing hot in the daytime.

I know they have schools up there, but I guess you were off smoking crack on the day they taught this stuff.

Moran.

The desert is a perfect example. It's not near water, and doesn't really get THAT cold at night. Not the kind of cold we are talking about. Take a look at Mars. Fairly temperate in the daytime, but about -100 at night. That is because Mars has an atmosphere about 1/100th that of Earth. Without that thermal blanket it gets very cold at night very fast. I am in the middle of the United States. How much do you think ocean temperatures have to do with land that is 1000 miles from any ocean?

THERE WILL BE 3 DAYS OF DARKNESS STARTING IN DEC 23RD 2012.

Greetings:

Your Sun/Star Called "Sol" ... Is Only (1) Part Of What Creates The Heat/Light Effect ... On Terra/Earth !!

It Is The Interactions Between The Energies/Radiations Given Off By Your Sun/Star ... & Those Radiations From Space ... & Those From Terra/Earth ... Which Create A "Frictional Effect" ... Thereby The Heat & Light !!

Removal From Interaction By Volcanic Deflection/Absorption ... Or The Sun/Star "Sol" Changing In Polarity ... "Shutting Down" For Awhile ... You Would Have Mere Seconds ... Mere Moments If That ... Before Things On The Surface "Flash Freeze" ... & The Surface Temperature Plunges Many Hundreds Of Degrees Below O !!

If The "Interruption" Is Caused By Volcanic Means ... You Will Have The Moments It Takes ... For The Volcano(s) To Cool ... To Stop Erupting & Dispensing Heat From Underground !!

Farewell For Now !!

ST In BG

I believe this may be it, then froze to death in a second.

Atmosphere retains heat..otherwise you'd die come night fall lol

The core also gives heat, so it would take a little longer than you think. There's a reason the ice moons have water under the surface...heat from within.

THIS^^^^

That's the reason it's freezing cold between the earth and sun, yet we still receive heat.

Greetings: Anonymous Coward: User ID: 20898323

Quoting: ST In BG: User ID: 27410548

"Greetings:

Your Sun/Star Called "Sol" ... Is Only (1) Part Of What Creates The Heat/Light Effect ... On Terra/Earth !!

It Is The Interactions Between The Energies/Radiations Given Off By Your Sun/Star ... & Those Radiations From Space ... & Those From Terra/Earth ... Which Create A "Frictional Effect" ... Thereby The Heat & Light !!

Removal From Interaction By Volcanic Deflection/Absorption ... Or The Sun/Star "Sol" Changing In Polarity ... "Shutting Down" For Awhile ... You Would Have Mere Seconds ... Mere Moments If That ... Before Things On The Surface "Flash Freeze" ... & The Surface Temperature Plunges Many Hundreds Of Degrees Below O !!

If The "Interruption" Is Caused By Volcanic Means ... You Will Have The Moments It Takes ... For The Volcano(s) To Cool ... To Stop Erupting & Dispensing Heat From Underground !!"

THIS^^^^

That's the reason it's freezing cold between the Earth and sun, yet we still receive heat

**It Is ... Way Below The Temperature That You Know As "Freezing" !!

**The Sun/Star "Sol" Is Of Extremely COLD Plasma ... Of Which It Gives Off Energies & Radiations ... Which If You Were Out In Space ... Without Sufficient Shielding ... The "Frictional Effect" Caused By An Interaction With A Vessel ... Would Burn This To A Crisp ... Vaporize It !!

**While The Temperature Is Of The Extreme Cold Of Space ... There Are "Natural Processes" ... In Effect ... In Which Ones Need To Account For ... In Order To Prevent Disaster ... A "Burn Up" !!

Farewell For Now !!

ST In BG

Sure would mess up solar power huh?

thank you for your reply

Probably quick flash freeze, same thing that happened in the ice age.

Oh, really?

First off, what is so different about water and air; in your imaginary world, does water have a heat capacity and air does not? What about solids? Are you aware or not that warmth is maintained in the soil and rock for a surprisingly long time?

Second, assume your idiotic description is true; the atmosphere instantly chills, and the only source of heat through twelve-odd hours of night is the ocean. Sucks to be in Minnesota, then!

But even on the coast, we're talking a transfer of radiant energy on the magnitude of the continuous detonation of thermonuclear weapons just off-shore. In your fantasy scenario, the atmosphere is freezing solid in minutes, but before it can fall as oxygen and nitrogen snow on the landscape, a blast of heat from the nearest large body of water vaporizes it again.

Do you know what a storm cell is? Do you understand, even, what causes winds? Can your imagination encompass what would happen if all of the continental air masses were to become rapidly chilled to near-zero, falling swiftly to the ground, whilst ocean-warmed air masses rush into the void?



The post you responded to was an approximation. As a first order, yes, atmosphere chills over the night, but it doesn't chill by more than tens of degrees. And themostasis is enhanced by bodies of water, as well as rocks and soil (which are poor thermal conductors so even though they are deep thermal reservoirs, they aren't going to make a significant difference over the course of a single night.) And over the course of a night, night breezes blow in from the warmer sea air.

And to move back to the original post -- over the first twelve hours of the sun going out, those events will proceed almost identically with any average night. The major difference is that it won't get any better with morning.

That's when you start calculating in the available reservoirs. I haven't looked at it, but I suspect the atmosphere would freeze out on the scale of a couple of weeks. The seas would freeze more slowly. The Earth itself has both internal radionuclides and the residual heat of gravitational collapse, and the time scale before deep caves turn properly Plutonic will be on the hundreds of millions of years.

Wow, so many smart people all in one place.

Until we ran out of fire wood.