• cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 months ago

    Now I am curious, somebody explain. if it just stopped burning, would we know after 8 mins, if we lived on the opposite side?

    • bluemellophone@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It takes 8 minutes for the light to travel from the sun to Earth. Because light in a vacuum travels faster than anything, including information, we would not and could not know it had disappeared for 8 minutes. This means Earth would continue to follow its orbit around a non-existent sun for 8 minutes because the Sun’s gravity would still be acting on the Earth.

      If it was nighttime, you wouldn’t notice the sudden lack of sunlight (other than if it was a full moon) but you’d almost certainly notice the change in gravity.

      Edit: actually, you wouldn’t feel any difference in gravity or experience any change of acceleration. What you would experience is a very tiny vibration, of 1 million push notifications being sent to your phone from the other side of the planet.

      • mattreb@feddit.it
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        3 months ago

        you’d almost certainly notice the change in gravity.

        Really? can you actually percieve the sun gravity? Do you mean that we would get like a tsunami beause of the tidal effect? Now I kinda want a documentary about this.