If nuclear fusion in the suns core suddenly stopped working today would the sky be dark in the daytime tomorrow?

Answer 1

It has been calculated that it would take roughly 8 years from the end of fusion in the core to the surface of the sun beginning to cool. It would then take 8 minutes before we would notice this cooling on the earth.

Answer 2

It takes a photon of light thousands of years to percolate from the sun's interior to its surface. We would know after about eight minutes that nuclear fusion had stopped within the core, because neutrinos shine through the sun as though it were tissue paper. We have big detectors monitoring solar neutrinos. Actually, it would probably take more than eight minutes for us to realize the sun no longer produced neutrinos, but it would continue to shine for years after the fusion had stopped. It would probably be at least a few years before we began to detect solar dimming not attributable to sunspots.

Answer 3

It does - all the time.

The outer envelope would expand, releasing pressure on the core, this causes a reduction in nuclear fusion which decreases the temperature. This reduction cause the outer envelope to contract creating more pressure in the core which increases nuclear fusion. etc etc.

Answer 4

If for some reason the core could not expand, the higher temperature would make the fusion rate increase even more, creating a positive feedback loop in which the fusion rate and temperature would keep getting higher and higher...thus there would be no equilibrium...this is what would occur when the sun is near the end of its life.

Answer 5

If nuclear fusion in the sun stopped, gravitational collapse would quickly follow. The sun would go dark and shrink very fast. It is the energy of fusion that makes light and fights the efforts of gravity to crush the sun into a little ball. Take away the fusion, no light. And gravity takes over.

Answer 6

If the sun stopped and stood still it would not be able to keep it's energy going. This energy sustains life on Earth for example and if it stopped life on Earth would suffer tremendously.

Answer 7

If the sun stopped nuclear fusion we would all die.