if the sun fell into the pacific ocean?

[LHC990]

How long would it take to completely burn up? My friend and I disagree greatly because I say a week (since the sun is HUGE) but he says 3-4 days, because he says the pacific ocean is really cold because of melting glaciers from Alaska. Can you set the record straight?

[ydoaPs]

The ocean would boil long before the sun gets anywhere near it.

[traveler]

1. That's like asking what would happen if a bowling ball fell into a pinhead.

 

2. If something caused the sun to travel towards the Earth, the Earth would be forced away due to the enormous heat.

[iNow]

2. If something caused the sun to travel towards the Earth, the Earth would be forced away due to the enormous heat.

 

Nonsense. Gravity would overcome any radiative pressure.

 

 

LHC - The oceans would boil long before the sun ever came close to touching the Earth.

[Gilded]

The energy output of the Sun is enough to boil all the water on Earth in about a second, roughly. So... yeah, what yourdadonapogos said.

[Mr Skeptic]

Somewhere between seconds and hours. Also, the sun can't fall into the Pacific, it would be the earth falling into the sun. And it would have to fall fast enough not to vaporize the earth before it reached the sun.

[Baby Astronaut]

1. That's like asking what would happen if a bowling ball fell into a pinhead.

Actually, it's more like asking what if a 50-story wide volcanic fireball fell into a drop of water?

[YT2095]

consider this, lets use a more Down-to-Earth example to illustrate the point.

the Earth is constantly being bombarded by tiny meteorites and ice crystals etc...

some not so tiny.

 

as they enter the atmosphere they get hot, Very hot! and burn up.

now there IS an ablative force acting upon these meteorites that creates a pressure in opposition to the pull of gravity during this process, but non the less they are still inexorably drawn downwards by the greater force of gravity.

 

if you`v ever seen a "shooting star" you have observed this yourself

[Klaynos]

I'm in work atm, but it's quite trivial with just a few bits of measured data to work out the radiative pressure from the sun on the earth at different radii from the sun.

 

It is also trivial to work out the force of gravity between the two.

 

As for the op it would depend how fast the earth is accelerating towards the sun as the water would be gone LONG before impact.

[Tsadi]

With the earth roughly 1,000,000 times smaller than the sun and 333,000 times less mass, i must slap my head and sigh. I've not read anyone elses replies here, but i am almost absolutely positive, ''size'' would be an issue.

[CaptainPanic]

It's a bit like the guy who said he kicked another guy on the foot with his testicles. It's all a matter of perception, but the rest of the world would have chosen different words.

[Pradeepkumar]

when sun comes near Earth ,i believe the earth will melt.That is when sun comes near earth all the water in the earth will evaporate....and thats where i have a doubt where will the evaporated water go.... into the space????

[Tsadi]

when sun comes near Earth ,i believe the earth will melt.That is when sun comes near earth all the water in the earth will evaporate....and thats where i have a doubt where will the evaporated water go.... into the space????

 

The earth would certainly scorch: Become molten before it ever reach the sun, or the sun reached the earth... but it would not melt entirely.

[insane_alien]

err, yes it would. it would only need to go approximately half way in between mercury and the sun to become completely molten. closer and it will start vapourising.

[Tsadi]

I argue it wouldn't. I would argue it would become a molten ball that would eventually be consumed.

 

When i read the post above, i assumed he meant totally vaporized. I don't think it would. I think it would become a dense ball of molten rock.

[big314mp]

All of these are from wikipedia:

 

BP of silica: 2230C

BP of lime: 2850C

BP of iron: 2862C

BP of nickel: 2913C

BP of alumina: 2980C

BP of magnesia: 3600C

 

Temperature at Surface of the Sun: ~5500C

 

IMO, the sun wins.

 

While looking up this data, I found this site, which has some pretty good laughs:

 

http://www.thesurfaceofthesun.com/

[insane_alien]

I argue it wouldn't. I would argue it would become a molten ball that would eventually be consumed.

 

When i read the post above, i assumed he meant totally vaporized. I don't think it would. I think it would become a dense ball of molten rock.

 

exactly, a ball of molten rock would be an entirely melted earth.

[Tsadi]

Right so we agreed on the same thing...

 

Maybe it was the way i worded my last post.

[insane_alien]

The earth would certainly scorch: Become molten before it ever reach the sun, or the sun reached the earth... but it would not melt entirely.

 

emphasis mine.

 

thats what i was reffering to.

[Mr Skeptic]

It all depends on how fast you throw the earth at the sun. Rock is not a particularly good conductor of heat, so you could have the surface melting and even vaporizing, and the core molten, but with a sandwich of solid rock in between. The earth would have to absorb a lot of heat before it would completely melt. And the iron core at the center would be even harder to melt.

[Sisyphus]

Well, somebody throw the Earth into the sun at 0.99C, and let us know what happens. Remember your safety goggles!

[Gilded]

Well, somebody throw the Earth into the sun at 0.99C, and let us know what happens. Remember your safety goggles!

 

"My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"

[Mr Skeptic]

Perhaps we could ask a different question.

 

If the earth were teleported to the sun's surface, how long would it take to melt the crust?

[CaptainPanic]

All of these are from wikipedia:

 

BP of silica: 2230C

BP of lime: 2850C

BP of iron: 2862C

BP of nickel: 2913C

BP of alumina: 2980C

BP of magnesia: 3600C

 

Temperature at Surface of the Sun: ~5500C

 

IMO, the sun wins.

 

While looking up this data, I found this site, which has some pretty good laughs:

 

http://www.thesurfaceofthesun.com/

 

Those boiling points are at 1 bar pressure. I doubt that for example the core of the earth is at 1 bar. Even if a large part of the earth would evaporate, I'd expect it to stay attracted to the earth. Then you get some kind of gaseous stone atmosphere... My point is that this atmosphere will create a pressure high enough to prevent the remainder from boiling.

 

It all depends on how fast you throw the earth at the sun. Rock is not a particularly good conductor of heat, so you could have the surface melting and even vaporizing, and the core molten, but with a sandwich of solid rock in between. The earth would have to absorb a lot of heat before it would completely melt. And the iron core at the center would be even harder to melt.

 

My point (above) is regardless of heat transfer. But indeed, the heat transfer through a whole atmosphere and several (hundreds of) kilometers of rock will be slow on a human life time scale... Planets have a different time scale though, so if mother earth agrees with us I don't know.

[big314mp]

Those boiling points are at 1 bar pressure. I doubt that for example the core of the earth is at 1 bar. Even if a large part of the earth would evaporate, I'd expect it to stay attracted to the earth. Then you get some kind of gaseous stone atmosphere... My point is that this atmosphere will create a pressure high enough to prevent the remainder from boiling.

 

My point (above) is regardless of heat transfer. But indeed, the heat transfer through a whole atmosphere and several (hundreds of) kilometers of rock will be slow on a human life time scale... Planets have a different time scale though, so if mother earth agrees with us I don't know.

 

As to the heat transfer, that is a very valid point.

 

On the other one (I'm talking out of my a$$ here, so correct me as needed), the sun could pull the atmosphere off of the earth as it vaporized, sort of like the star orbiting the black hole scenario. Or, perhaps the solar wind could blow the atmosphere away, which is something I've heard proposed for why the smaller inner planets lack an atmosphere.