Life of the Sun

[fwc67]

Is there any way to extend the life of the Sun forever or is this not possible with futuristic  technology?

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, fwc67 said:

Is there any way to extend the life of the Sun forever or is this not possible with futuristic  technology?

I expect Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged could tell you how to do it. As I recall, it involved a particle accelerator, a liquid lunch and two rubber bands. 

[Endy0816]

2 hours ago, fwc67 said:

Is there any way to extend the life of the Sun forever or is this not possible with futuristic  technology?

Most realistic would be via Starlifting.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_lifting

We'd need to remove heavier material while eventually feeding in fresh fuel.

Will be a major undertaking.

 

[Bufofrog]

5 hours ago, fwc67 said:

Is there any way to extend the life of the Sun forever or is this not possible with futuristic  technology?

The answer is not possible.  Why would you want to do this?  The earth will remain habitable for at least 600 million more years before the sun ends all life.  That's a pretty good run I'd say.  

[Genady]

Perhaps it'd be easier to keep making new ones as needed.

[TheVat]

Yep.  Or other technologies.

Kurzweil sees a universe post-stellar, filled with computronium, using matter in the most efficient way to indefinitely prolong the lifespan of the universe.  Charles Stross wrote about matrioshka brains built around stars, which would eventually replace the dying star with some artificial energy source.  

[mistermack]

Pee on it, and then light it again when needed. 

Well, it works with a camp fire.  

[Genady]

Jupiter is a failed star. We should fix that.

[TheVat]

1 hour ago, Genady said:

Jupiter is a failed star. We should fix that.

 

2010, Arthur Clarke.  Self-replicating machines ignite Jupiter.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa.

Side note: I wrote Clarke a letter when I was eleven.  A school assignment was to read a book then write the author with a question you had about the book (the one on the Great Barrier Reef).  To my amazement, Clarke sent me a handwritten note from Sri Lanka.

3 hours ago, mistermack said:

Pee on it, and then light it again when needed. 

Well, it works with a camp fire.  

I have a heard a vulgar version of Waltzing Matilda that your comment reminded me of.  Perhaps it will appear in a more appropriate thread.  Someday.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by TheVat
typo

[Genady]

3 minutes ago, TheVat said:

 

2010, Arthur Clarke.  Self-replicating machines ignite Jupiter.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa.

Side note: I wrote Clarke a letter when I was eleven.  A school assignment was to read a book then write the author with a question you had about the book (the one on the Great Barrier Reef).  To my amazement, Clarke sent me a handwritten note from Sri Lanka.

Well then, I don't have the priority, but believe me, I did not plagiarize the idea.

Nice.

[TheVat]

 

As I recall in the novel Callisto and Ganymede develop mild terrestrial climates which makes human colonization easier.  Europa has sentient aquatic life, so the monolith makers ban humans from going there.  I have never factchecked the science for all this, but Clarke was pretty good about that, so it may be possible to terraform some Jovian moons if Jupiter becomes a star-like primary.

[Genady]

9 minutes ago, TheVat said:

 

As I recall in the novel Callisto and Ganymede develop mild terrestrial climates which makes human colonization easier.  Europa has sentient aquatic life, so the monolith makers ban humans from going there.  I have never factchecked the science for all this, but Clarke was pretty good about that, so it may be possible to terraform some Jovian moons if Jupiter becomes a star-like primary.

I've read 2001 in Russian translation, but they never published 2010. They said it had some "wrong" societal or political themes in it.

[mistermack]

9 hours ago, Bufofrog said:

The answer is not possible.  Why would you want to do this?  The earth will remain habitable for at least 600 million more years before the sun ends all life.  That's a pretty good run I'd say.  

I'm sure that the Sun won't be ending all life in 600 million years time. We've gone from flying stringbag planes to robots on Mars in just over a hundred years. There's no way we won't be inhabiting all sorts of environments in space, in another 600 million years. And we'll have taken samples of other life forms with us, of course. 

If we don't wipe ourselves out, and barring a catastrophic impact on Earth in the next 200 years or so. 

[Genady]

We will not need to do any of that. We'll be just floating in space in individual capsules living each in their own virtual reality.

[iNow]

2 hours ago, Genady said:

I've read 2001 in Russian translation, but they never published 2010. They said it had some "wrong" societal or political themes in it.

Sounds more like 1984 than 2010

[fwc67]

The Sun is made up of hydrogen, it shouldn't be that hard to refuel

[Bufofrog]

35 minutes ago, fwc67 said:

The Sun is made up of hydrogen, it shouldn't be that hard to refuel

The sun fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen a second, so that seems a bit daunting to me.

Edited September 10, 2023 by Bufofrog

[swansont]

Also the issue isn’t merely a lack of hydrogen, it’s a lack of hydrogen in the core, where the fusion takes place. Dumping hydrogen into the star won’t help, unless that hydrogen gets into the core, which has a lot of helium in it as it goes into the red giant phase

[TheVat]

Might do better switching to to the Penrose process, which is much more efficient conversion than proton-proton chain.  First, you get a properly sized black hole...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_process

 

[mistermack]

It would be a lot easier to move the Earth further away from the Sun. A metre a year should be enough.