What would Happen if the Sun Exploded Tomorrow?

This is a 'what if,' on what would happen if the Sun exploded tomorrow. That star at the heart of our solar system, that super-hot ball of plasma that provides us with heat, energy, and gorgeous complexions—it's a ticking time bomb. The Sun is around 10 billion years old, but it is anticipated to endure only another 5 billion years. The Sun will then grow and become a crimson behemoth. The star will then contract to become a white dwarf, a dying star that will cool for billions of years. Of course, we'll all be long gone before any of that happens, but can you image watching the Sun explode before your very eyes, with a name?

Like a supernova, you'd imagine a solar explosion would be the most spectacular fireworks display the world has ever seen, but in reality, you'd probably see nothing. The Sun is 150 million kilometers away from Earth, and light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach us. And, while that may appear to be a long way off, in supernova terms, we don't stand a chance. To be entirely safe from a supernova, Earth would have to be at least 50 to 100 light-years away. The good news is that if the Sun explodes tomorrow, the resulting shockwave would not be powerful enough to kill the entire Earth—only the side facing the Sun would instantly boil.

The fortunate other half would see a temperature rise 15 times that of the Sun's present surface temperature, as well as permanent darkness. Without the Sun's mass to maintain us in orbit, Earth would most likely begin to float away into space, as its remaining inhabitants desperately try to stay alive. There is a potential that our planet will enter an orbit around another star that will supply the same light and heat as our Sun, but by then, we will all be long gone. If we knew when the Sun will burst, we could buy ourselves up to 1000 years of time, assuming we had the wherewithal to support ourselves for that long.

And only a few meters beneath your feet, the Earth maintains a temperature of roughly 17 degrees. If we had enough time to prepare, civilization could survive by migrating underground into a massive network of protected bunkers. Within a week of the explosion, the Earth's surface temperature would drop to - 18 degrees. Temperatures would drop to around minus 73 degrees in a year. The waters would begin to freeze from the top down at this stage. The Earth's atmosphere would freeze and collapse within 1,000 years, leaving anything remained on the surface vulnerable to cosmic radiation and meteor impacts. We'd hoped to have found a new place by that moment.

The good news is that if the Sun were to explode—which is inevitable—it would not happen overnight. When the Sun dies, it will be a long, sluggish, and difficult process that will take billions of years. The Sun will become hotter and brighter, as well as begin to expand. It will shed its outer layers to the cosmos throughout this process, resulting in the formation of other stars and planets in the same way that the cataclysmic burst of the Big Bang formed Earth. Who can say? Perhaps new life will emerge.

Can you foresee a new humanoid species on Earth? It's difficult to fathom our galaxy billions of years from now, and it's even more difficult to imagine our solar system without the enormous golden anchor that holds us all together. But, in the far distant future, the Sun will expand, then contract, possibly giving room for a new star to emerge. And, if humanity is still alive at that moment by some miracle, where may we be living? Can you image having your children born on a space station? That's another narrative for another 'what if?'