if the sun suddenly "disappears" from our solar system, will the earth be thrown out of orbit instantly ?
919170
The theory is that gravity, or magnetism, moves at a certain speed.  The last I heard, that speed is still unknown but under study.  Thus, if the sun disappeared the earth would remain in orbit at the "speed of gravity"  and it would remain daylight at the "speed of Light."   Which speed is greater is yet to be determined.  However, my guess is that the speed of light is faster than the speed of magnetism.
292425
Well, very interesting question I must say. Our Sun was formed about 4600 million years ago and will continue to give out energy for an equal period of time. So, the earth is safe for the next 4600 million years. Phew!!\n\nBut, if you want to know what will be the fate of our sun (or any star for that matter) after it enters the final stages of its life, then read on.....\n\n(1) The first phase will be THE RED-GIANT PHASE. In this phase, the fusion reactions in the core of the sun will stop and it will start shrinking, this will disturb the equilibrium of our sun and it will start expanding like crazy to re-adjust it. Its color will change to red & it will become very very VERY big!\n\n(2) Now, the second stage will be the WHITE DWARF STAGE. Here, the expanding outer shell will be removed eventually and the shrinking Helium core will shrink into an extremely dense ball of matter due to gravitation. The helium nuclei will start to fuse together to form Carbon nuclei & will release tremendous amount of energy in the process & the sun will start glowing white.\n\n(3) Ultimately, the helium fuel will burn out & the sun will fade into space as a dense lump of matter.\n\n\nBut, if we consider the case of a much bigger star (even bigger than our sun), we'll find more final stages. Those stages will be- \na) Supernova- exploding star\nb) Neutron star- After explosion\nc) Pulsar- A spinning neutron star\nd) Black hole- Formed by an indefinite contraction of a heavy neutron star.\n\n:) Hope you enjoyed all the info :)\nHave a nice day
990337
Yes you do.  It is a very small difference, and would depend which side of the earth you were on regards it's orbital path around the sun, however you would actually make a difference.\n\nIf this is a question that has been put to you by your physics proffessor, then the answer is in the long run....no, because....when you land, you absorbe the energy you displaced upon leaving.\n\nThis is about gravity.  Look up Kepler's Law.\n\ngood luck.
49542
Yes, but not for a few million years. It'll happen just about 8 minutes after the Sun goes Supernova. 8 minutes is the light year distance from earth. So, don't sweat things for now.
1034315
Yes - it would.  But the likelihood is the other way around - the sun is more likely to get hotter and hotter - then explode into a supernova.
412196
Not in our lifetime.  It takes 1,500 years for it to complete its eliptical orbit between our Sun and a dead sun outside our galaxy.  We have a better chance meeting helpful space visitors before planet X will return.
140176
The Sun, Earth, and Moon are all gravitationally tied together. In other words, the interaction of their individual gravitational fields closely relates one to the other. The Earth/Moon system moves around the Sun in a particular orbit. Should the Sun somehow disappear, the movement of the Earth/Moon system would be radically altered. Even the Sun, the largest mass of the three objects, has its movement through space influenced by the gravity of the Earth and Moon. If we could view our Sun from several light years away, we'd notice that it moves through space not in a straight line, but instead a wavy line as the Earth/Moon system tugs at it.
377213
Yes. If we don't destroy it ourselves, eventually the Sun will burn out and Earth will freeze (all stars eventually burn out), making in uninhabitable for humans. I suppose there is a chance we will have technology to help us live in those conditions (or maybe we will evolve to live in thos conditions) by then, but I doubt it.
111381
As the Sun uses its hydrogen feul, the buildup of helium will cause the Sun's luminosity to increase, giving off more heat and radiation to the Earth.  Eventually, the heat will melt the polar caps, increase evaporation of the oceans, and turn the Earth in to a greenhouse.  Water vapors will later escape the Earth and effectively turn the Earth into something like the Venus of today.  At that point, temperatures will already be too high for life to continue.  \n\nAll of this will happen before the Sun even becomes a Red Giant (its hydrogen runs out).  The expansion of the Sun will consume and incinerate Mercury and Venus, and COULD potentially do the same to the Earth.  But, the mass lost that will occur when the Sun becomes a Red Giant will cause the diameter Earth's orbit to expand and thus barely escaping the surface of the Red Giant Sun.\n\nLife will all be incinerated by that point (approximately 7.5 billion years from now).  The only strategy is to migrate to Mars, or some how find a way to transfer Jupiter's gravity to pull the Earth away from the Sun and closer towards Jupiter.
322637
when we fall off the edge of the earth or we spin into the sun....take your choice
463963
I would say false.  The gravitational pull of the sun would pull it to it's doom.
1113923
i've already started packing.  i'm scheduling for 8am tomorrow.   \n\nHonestly I don't think anyone can really answer that.  If you are a person of faith then who knows other than when God decides.  If your not then you rely on all the brilliance of scientits, at their guesses I would guess another millenia before we completely wipe out all resources from the earth.  But until it comes to a complete end you have to be more specific, do you mean, end as in uninhabital and we have to leave it, or it completely is wiped out through some catastrophic event?  in the question of catastrophic event i would say 5 billion years (look to my resource link).\n\nIN RESPONSE TO...\nWOLF:  you claim that the sun will super nova in 9 thousand years due to universe facts.  well you have AMAZING universe facts considering that our sun will NEVER become a super nova.  even if it it where a star that would  super nova it wouldn't dry up our water.  come on, do you know what a super nova is?  if our sun exploded then there would be so much energy released that earth would more than likely be completely devasted to the point of utter inhabitation, oh and dry up our water.
1120914
I believe it would be instantaneous, but it's a fascinating question.  Perhaps the speed of light, because there are those who argue that gravity is another form of energy generally, and the whole "unified field" thing that I confess I do not understand at all.  \n\nI suppose part of the question is how the sun could "suddenly vanish" in the first place.  Would it in fact vanish instantaneously, or at the speed of light?  Even if it fell into a black hole, that would be an event, and events have a place in space/time.  That we would not know it had vanished until the light stopped coming to us some minute or two later (speed of light for 93 million miles), because of the light, then would gravity be following with that light?  The light is, after all, energy and therefore -- says Einstein -- matter, and that's what responds to gravity . . . \n\nGeeze, you make my head hurt with these puzzles.  I hope some really heavy-duty physicist takes a shot at this question!
1166435
Yes.  The sun will blow up in about 4.5 billion years, taking the earth with it.  Odds are humans will have been gone long before that though.
899150
Barring one of these, http://www.livescience.com/technology/10ways_destroyearth.html in about 5 billion years the sun will have exhausted most of it's hydrogen and will swell up to a red giant, engulfing the earth. As our blackened, burned-out cinder of a planet orbits inside the sun, it will be plowing through solar material, and will gradually spiral into the core, where it will fly apart shortly before impact and be smashed into it's base elements with little fanfare.
425143
Yes, but not in our lifetime.  The orbit is 1,500 years from our sun to a dead sun outside our solar system.  We have a better chance of meeting helpful space visitors than planet X.
902513
"According to astronomers, the Earth should last for at least five billion more years before the sun becomes a red giant. Due to the sun's loss of mass the Earth would escape to an orbit at a further distance than its current orbit. The immense heat however would likely boil off the oceans and turn the Earth into a barren wasteland looking like Mars does. If the Earth survived this event, the sun would further evolve into a white dwarf and provide too little heat to sustain life."\n\nNormally I don't copy and paste but Wikipedia explained that a lot better than I could've. I guess the "five billion years" estimate is assuming that some other catastrophe doesn't happen in the meantime, like an asteroid impact or human-created disaster or anything like that. But if none of that happens, Earth will be here for a while yet.