Ignite the sun

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_Simon_

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Would it be possible (in theory) to reignite the sun in anyway, once it starts to go out?

I started thinking about it after watching the movie "Sunshine". I know the movie has been criticized alot due to its disregard of physics but the idea of launching a nuclear warhead, the size of Manhattan, into the sun seemed interesting.

Cheers! :mrgreen:
 
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origin

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_Simon_":1ifh7l2g said:
Would it be possible (in theory) to reignite the sun in anyway, once it starts to go out?

I started thinking about it after watching the movie "Sunshine". I know the movie has been criticized alot due to its disregard of physics but the idea of launching a nuclear warhead, the size of Manhattan, into the sun seemed interesting.

Cheers! :mrgreen:

No.

The sun is not burning and cannot be ignited. The sun is producing energy by fusing light elements into heavier elements at it's core, due to the high temps and pressures from gravity. Once the lighter elements are depleted there will be no more to fuse to produce energy. An atomic bomb of any size would do absolutely nothing to change that. Once the fuel is gone - it is game over. We got about 4 billion years before that happens so I wouldn't sweat it. :D
 
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R1

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Iirc, in just one fourth of that time, (in 1 billion yrs.), all terrestrial life on Earth will have ceased
to exist from the gradual warming of the Sun.
 
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origin

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R1":1tbixhgq said:
Iirc, in just one fourth of that time, (in 1 billion yrs.), all terrestrial life on Earth will have ceased
to exist from the gradual warming of the Sun.

Now I'm worried. :D
 
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crazyeddie

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_Simon_":iqrxim8v said:
Would it be possible (in theory) to reignite the sun in anyway, once it starts to go out?

Actually, the only way you could extend the life of any star is to remove part of it's mass. Low mass stars are miserly with their supply of hydrogen and burn it more slowly than high-mass stars, which is why red dwarf stars have the longest life expectancy of all. Adding mass in the form of hydrogen to a older star will only accelerate it's own demise.
 
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neilsox

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I didn't see the movie, but we should never say never. Science changes it's mind, so there may be future possibilities. ie during much of the 20th century, the core of our sun was scheduled to run out of hydrogen in 5 billion years, then science concluded the oceans would start to boil near the equator in one billion years. A recent study concluded over 7 billon years until our sun became a red giant.
As the others posted, exploding even a million gigaton nuclear bomb near the surface or even 1000 miles below the photosphere would produce a hot spot on the surface for no more than one week. Now if we could explode the bomb 400,000 miles below the surface, that would possibly being some fresh hydrogen into the core keeping the sun fusing hydrogen for perhaps a million more years. At present we don't know how to deliver a bomb significantly into the Sun, but maybe or some other approach. Neil
 
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MeteorWayne

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Sorry, when the physics says unrealistically impossible, sometimes it's time to say never. Mass is what drives fusion, and when the Hydrogen fusion has ceased, the sun can never again return to the main sequence.

Do you have aref that says Red Giant status will be in 7 by? I've never heard that.

thanx, MW
 
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weeman

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_Simon_":1lnzhnpw said:
Would it be possible (in theory) to reignite the sun in anyway, once it starts to go out?

I started thinking about it after watching the movie "Sunshine". I know the movie has been criticized alot due to its disregard of physics but the idea of launching a nuclear warhead, the size of Manhattan, into the sun seemed interesting.

Cheers! :mrgreen:

That day is 1 billion years in the future. Let's stick to the health care crisis and the economy first. :D
 
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R1

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:cool: 'It's daylight saving time.'


:D


-------------------------------------------------------

Btw, is it possible that as the sun fuses Hydrogen into ...what...neutronium and protonium, that from time to time a mass-ejection could happen from time to time that is made up of diamond asteroids ?
 
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trumptor

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It's strange that even though a billion years is an unfathomable amount of time, its sad to think that after 4 billion years of life on the planet, there is only about 1 billion to go, if even that much.
 
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R1

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Agreed.

in 1 billion yrs., all terrestrial life on Earth will have ceased
to exist from the gradual warming of the Sun

I'm sure that means a lot of bad things for terrestrial life will occur extremely long before that.
 
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SpaceTas

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The lifetime of a sun-like star is limited by the amount of Hydrogen available in the inner core. The core of the Sun is radiative, with little convection and so little mixing of hydrogen downward. So if you could cause the core to become convective there would be much more fuel and the sun would keep on going.

Now how you do that ......
Maybe add lots of heay elements which will have high excitation lines increasing the absorption, letting convection on the outside move them inward.... nah elemts stuck in outer convection zone, extra opacity puff star to red giant early .. ??

Stir the interior up with small black holes ... nah radius of influence of black holes too small ...


Well if you could play with the internal structure of a star; well your race would have the tech+power not to need a star
 
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Saiph

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SpaceTas is right, there is very little mixing of the core material with the outer envelope. Even when a star's core fusion runs out of fuel, there is plenty of hydrogen left in the envelope, something like 80% of the stars starting hydrogen is never used.

So if you find a way to mix it into the core, it could extend the life of the star.

I suppose a creative use of a manhattan sized fusion bomb might do it....wait... :)

I don't think that'd do diddly, but you could, in theory, find a way to do it, and it would lengthen the lifespan.
 
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