Harden Elkington
It’s a question often asked: What would happen if the Sun approached Earth?
Fortunately, nothing very exciting.
The Sun is 149,600,000 km away from Earth, which corresponds to an average distance of about 150 million km or 1 Astronomical Unit (AU).
However, actually, the Earth moves in an ellipse around the Sun and we come a little closer to it (about 147 million km) at perihelion (January 3rd) and move away from it (152 million km) during aphelion (July 4th).
When the Sun is closest to Earth in January, it’s not very close at all.
In fact, it would only take a Sun that was about 1.5 million km closer to Earth to cause a devastating event.
What is the effect of the sun being close to the earth?
The following list is what would happen if the sun came close to Earth.
This does not mean that this will actually happen because the sun is so far away from Earth.
- The Sun’s gravity would disrupt the orbit of Mars, which could possibly crash into Earth one day in the future destroying all life on the planet
- The oceans would evaporate because the Sun’s heat would become more intense and Earth’s atmospheric pressure would increase. The planet would no longer be in a habitable zone and so life could not exist here anymore.
- Earth’s magnetic field would disappear, which is why we rely on the atmosphere to block the Sun’s radiation from reaching us. This would cause all life on Earth to die.
- The Sun’s gravity would disrupt the orbit of Mercury, causing it to crash into the sun or crash into Earth destroying all life on the planet.
- The Sun’s heat and radiation would cause all water bodies on Earth to evaporate completely drying up rivers and oceans leaving only deep pools of saltwater.
- The increase in solar radiation would cause the Earth’s atmosphere to heat up and expand. This would cause the Earth’s atmosphere to escape into space and so living beings on Earth would eventually die from a lack of oxygen.
- The increased ultraviolet radiation would also kill off all plant life on the planet making it an uninhabitable wasteland.
- The increased solar winds would cause the Earth’s atmosphere to erode away, and eventually, the planet would be plunged into darkness.
- The increase in solar flares could potentially knock out electrical grids on Earth, leaving us in the dark with no way to communicate or survive.
- And finally, a collision with Earth would destroy the planet.
Is it possible for the sun going to come close to the earth?
Scientists have not been able to predict exactly how close the sun will come to Earth in the future.
However, it is very unlikely that it will ever come close enough to cause any of the disasters listed above.
The sun is constantly moving and so its orbit around Earth changes over time. This means that the distance between the two planets changes as well.
The sun is currently moving further away from Earth and so it is not likely that the sun will come close enough to cause any of these disasters in our lifetimes or those of our children or grandchildren.
How much closer would the sun have to be to kill us?
If the sun were to come closer to Earth, it would have to be within a distance of 1.5 million km in order to cause any of the disasters listed above.
However, as mentioned earlier, it is very unlikely that the sun will ever come this close.
The sun is constantly moving and its orbit around Earth changes over time. This means that there is no way to predict how close the sun will come in the future.
However, scientists have not been able to predict exactly where the sun’s orbit will take it in the future and so they cannot say for certain whether or not it will ever be close enough to cause any of these disasters.
- See also: What happens when your oxygen level drops too low
- See also: What happens if you take too much melatonin
What could we do to prevent the sun from coming close to Earth?
There is nothing that we as humans can do to prevent the sun from coming close to Earth.
The sun is constantly moving and its orbit around Earth changes over time.
This means that there is no way to predict exactly how close the sun will come in the future.
Conclusion
The sun is constantly moving and its orbit around Earth changes over time.
This means that there is no way to predict exactly how close the sun will come in the future.
However, scientists have not been able to predict exactly where the sun’s orbit will take it in the future and so they cannot say for certain whether or not it will ever be close enough to cause any of these disasters.
NASA’s Kepler satellite which looks for planets around other stars has found none within a distance of 1 AU, which means that the Earth is the only planet in the known universe where life exists.
