What Would Happen If We Nuked The Sun?

[KansukeKojima 0]

Assuming the nuke could actually make it there without being destroyed... I can imagine it would be fairly catastropic.... probably not as large as a super-nova but I imagine we would be screwed...

[serverph 0]

i would think a nuke would not even make a dent on our sun. perhaps it will just result in a simple solar flare, which is quite normal for the sun. let's consider the size of the sun, as compared to the planets which revolve around it like earth, and how miniscule a nuke would look like.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Umm, actually, what makes the sun do what it does is nuclear reactions already. We would probably not even notice a Nuke hitting the sun.

[DarkPsycho 0]

A catastrophic nuke here is almost nothing on the sun.The sun is about 110 times as large as Earth in terms of size (in terms of mass it is about 333,000 times as large). Even with this in mind, the sun puts off more radiation and could do much more damage than a nuke. It would be like putting a grenade next to an atom bomb and setting both off. The grenade will really have no effect because the atom bomb is that much stronger.

Edited December 16, 2007 by DarkPsycho (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

We are forgetting the heat factor to this answer the nuke will not even reach the sun as I would say it blow up somewhere between the sun and Mercury. Even if it did reach the sun it would melt in mere milliseconds because of the liquidi layer of the sun so I doubt it will even explode. Of course if you factor everything that I just said, no one has no idea how big of a warhead it has to be to supernova that bad boy; the current stock of nuclear weapons across the world wouldn't have enough energy to pop it. So if anyone plans to hold the world hostage by pointing a nuke at the sun we might as well point and luagh and call the person a moron.

[Watermonkey 0]

That's exactly right, Mike. And it's one of my favorite things to do, too (laughing and pointing at morons, that is). Since the sun and any other star, for that matter, is really a giant nuclear inferno, adding a little nuke or even every nuclear weapon on planet Earth, to the mix would be virtually undetectable except by the most sensitive of instruments. If you really wanted to damage or in some way alter a star, you'd need a pretty large quantity, say ten thousand pounds, of anti-matter, somehow devise a way of containing it, then somehow send it to the star's surface without melting or vaporizing the container. Upon contact with the matter of the star, the anti-matter would cause a catastrophic explosion that would be quite noticeable, I would think, to the casual observer. But, let's be reasonable here. The dolphins would never forgive you if you did something like that to our star, so don't do it.

[FLaKes 0]

I think it would impossible for a nuke to reach the sun, and even if it did.. I think that what would happen is that the sun would absorb the power of the nuke. Maybe if we send a really big nuke that is proportional in size maybe it could do some damage to the sun. I doubt anyone would be evil enough to do such a thing.

[A200 0]

Hahahahahaha this thread is funny!Nuking the sun! Ha! It would never make it... firstly imagine the amount of energy required just to get it out of the earth without burning up, then somehow sending it through the air to the Sun without getting stopped by no gravity.... and plus considering the sun is a nuclear bomb anyway, it wouldnt do anything.Now if we want to talk serious, what would happen if we nuked the moon?

[shadowx 0]

then somehow sending it through the air to the Sun without getting stopped by no gravity

Well i imagine sending it into space would be fairly easy as many long range missiles come close to space anyway and we're able to launch huge payloads into space, i wont mention nuking the sun because its already been exhaustively discussed! I do however like the antimatter idea... Muahahaha That woud be awesome to watch.. though i fear i wouldn't be around long enough to enjoy the billions of tons of molten material and plasma and radiation that would soon engulf me..shame, i had my super sunglasses ready and everything No blindness for me!

the original question is an interesting one though... what would happen if we actually could explode the sun.. I would wanna be a long way away that's for sure

[csp4.0 1]

no... if you could find a way to 'teleport' or 'move' several decatons of pure iron into the Sun's or any other star's core... remember the sun is a giant ball of nuclear fusion, not fission. And if you are interested in nuclear physics like me then you would know that fusing iron uses up energy, not created and that is how a star goes supernova (when all material in the sun's core is fused to iron it won't fuse anymore because fusing iron uses up energy, the eternal battle between energy and gravity is over, gravity wins. The hydrogen from the star's outer layers give a final push of energy which is the supernova and then the star either turns into a black hole or it turns into a neutron star).So, there if you want to make a star go Supernova go teleport a couple of deca-tons of pure iron into the sun's core. But how would you get the iron to the sun's core? teleporting it like in Stargate is out of the question and putting it there manually is impossible because of the immense heat and gravitational forces.No nuke would do anything to the sun, even a giant nuke with a ball of weapons grade plutonium the size of pluto will not do anything to the sun, and even then the energy generated would be minuscule (maybe one pico percent) to that of the sun's energy let alone a blue super giant.

[Maou_Tsaou 0]

But how would you get the iron to the sun's core? teleporting it like in Stargate is out of the question and putting it there manually is impossible because of the immense heat and gravitational forces.

Intresting idea dampening the field w/Fe however Sol is on a lifecycle that ends in a white-dwarf last I'd read (some 10+ yrs so...).
I'd guess that Iron would only hasten the pocess but even the theory boys don't have a total model.
Problems like only 1/3rd the Neutrienos observed in nature than predicted in theory, etc.

Now the term teleport is loosely defined at best.
It is my understanding that "teleporting" of photons has been achieved (New Zealand?) useing partical corospondance, but that won't help us here.

How about Tecerat?

Of course Eddington's observations of Sol, helping to prove Einstines Specal Relativity, suggest that the deflection of a midlin-sized Star is not very large meaning that you'd probably have to burn quite a few Stars to make a "wrinkel" of any meaningful size.

We may have those Stars in Glactic Centers, where 90% of a Galaxys Stars reside.
The background cosmic radiation in these centers may be so intense as to render complex carbon chains impossable, therby rendering these system steril by any concievable Bio-chem standard.

Else if, we may turn to theoritcal sources for the vast energies required.
Perhaps vacume fluxuation. There is no limit to the possable energy/partical.
Maybe something like membraine colision?

Wiggins the only one who "really" gets M theory and even when he talks...
It makes you feel like going home and watching an episode of the Telitubbies.

Anyway, never say never.

It'd be a bit less than five min. before we'd notice anything.
If she actually did colapse catastrophacly into her Iron core she'd ring like a bell if there was air around to carry the energy.
As the Earths atmosphere was being striped away perhaps it would do so with a resounding <RING!>.

Just some thoughts for what their worth.

Maou

[csp4.0 1]

Intresting idea dampening the field w/Fe however Sol is on a lifecycle that ends in a white-dwarf last I'd read (some 10+ yrs so...).I'd guess that Iron would only hasten the pocess but even the theory boys don't have a total model.
Problems like only 1/3rd the Neutrienos observed in nature than predicted in theory, etc.

Now the term teleport is loosely defined at best.
It is my understanding that "teleporting" of photons has been achieved (New Zealand?) useing partical corospondance, but that won't help us here.

How about Tecerat?

Of course Eddington's observations of Sol, helping to prove Einstines Specal Relativity, suggest that the deflection of a midlin-sized Star is not very large meaning that you'd probably have to burn quite a few Stars to make a "wrinkel" of any meaningful size.

We may have those Stars in Glactic Centers, where 90% of a Galaxys Stars reside.
The background cosmic radiation in these centers may be so intense as to render complex carbon chains impossable, therby rendering these system steril by any concievable Bio-chem standard.

Else if, we may turn to theoritcal sources for the vast energies required.
Perhaps vacume fluxuation. There is no limit to the possable energy/partical.
Maybe something like membraine colision?

Wiggins the only one who "really" gets M theory and even when he talks...
It makes you feel like going home and watching an episode of the Telitubbies.

Anyway, never say never.

It'd be a bit less than five min. before we'd notice anything.
If she actually did colapse catastrophacly into her Iron core she'd ring like a bell if there was air around to carry the energy.
As the Earths atmosphere was being striped away perhaps it would do so with a resounding <RING!>.

Just some thoughts for what their worth.

Maou

Even if we can teleport photons or protons, the problem is the sheer mass of decatons of iron. No power source (maybe not even the sun itself) can create enough power to 'teleport' all that iron inside the sun unscathed.
Also your idea about the vacuum energy, there is not much vacuum energy in the universe, or there might be but how can we harness it? I mean if there was enough vacuum energy in the space of mercury to power a 100W light bulb, then we could harness the power of vacuum energy of the solar system to teleport the iron. But would that iron do anything? I mean a decaton is extremely minuscule compared to the weight of the sun, all I know is that this iron would be able to create immense fluctruations within the sun itself.
But would it be enough to permanently stop the nuclear fusion process? If you think about it, just before a star goes supernova its entire core is basically made out of iron, a couple of decatons is not even half of the core!

Also consider would our sun actually go supernova? The sun dieing by itself does not have enough mass to cause a supernova but would a sudden fluctruation give it an energy 'boost' or more likely 'decline' that would make all the particles inside the sun more and more excited, eventually causing a supernova.

Now there is one problem with that theory... where would we get the iron? We could mine every last iron atom from Earth, but that would mean basically destroying our own home planet just for a doomsday experiment! If we mine it from mars (well there goes our dreams of ever living on Mars!) and the asteroids will be too dangerous to harvest from, even with robotic harvesters. And how could we teleport all that iron? we can't teleport it one atom/molecule by one atom/molecule! or else it will merely be fused before the next atom/molecule reaches its destination.
So there if we could do this experiment, how will we get a power source? how will we get the iron without completely destroying planets, and what would happen If we do manage to transport the iron into the core of our sun?

[musicmaza 0]

I don't think any one on planet earth would want to nuke the sun.This is because even if planet earth dosn't gets blown off ...no one would survive as there would be no sunlight ..consequently there would be no plants,trees and thus no oxygen and percentage of carbon-dioxide would increase leading to global waring ...and then melting of ice caps and eventually human beings would get submerged in deep water.....Thus there would be an end to this era of one of the most intelligent creatures on earth.So why one one would want to nuke the sun(note:Not taking the case of people who don't like to live on this beautiful earth which has everything to offer....though its people get benefits in different forms.)

But if we imagine nuke the sun then i think we would surely get screwed up because 0ur planet earth is pretty near to the sun,its the thirdmost planet starting from sun.Mercury would surely get screwed up theres no doubt about it.I think The suns explosion would be very strong and powerful because of its hot core and due to the hot lava on its surface.....
It would be as fierce as a supernova explosion.The sun itself a nuclear bomb

i had my super sunglasses ready

Sunglasses I think wouldn't help but can be given a try to have any kind of chance to save ourselves.

But at a later stage in this era if anyone wants to nuke the sun then its better to search for another life supporting planet where there is no need of sun.

But its I think not possible so People please son't think to nuke the sun..........

[arnz 0]

I personally do not think its possible to nuke the sun as its well too far away for any machine or so to hit it. But in a unlikely scenario of that happening, it would most likely been dark 24/hours.. Would be interesting to see how it effects temperature.

[A200 0]

If we did get the nuke to the sun, and made it big enough to actually DESTROY the sun, then we would be dead before we know it.Earth would freeze like a snowball and it would go dark... except for the artificial light. But by the time technology is good enough to destroy the sun, we would all rely on solar power, so it would go dark quickly anyway.Plus the solar system would loose its gravitational pull around the sun and all hell would break loose...Or, alternatively, if the sun blew up, it would take the entire solar system with it, and therefore earth would be gone quickly before we freeze.