this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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or just a 'poof'?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

This is speculation. I'm not a physicist.

Gravitational effects. It would almost certainly disturb a lot of asteroids and comets into new orbits. It wouldn't be a catastrophe for Earth , given the protection of the gas giants, but it would probably increase risks for the next few decades/centuries/millenniums. Depending on the exact trajectory of the planet, it would probably also disturb other planets' orbits a little. Anything radically different would be unlikely, but maybe something light and relatively unstable like Mercury would go nuts. As for Earth, in the likeliest scenarios, at most maybe the length of a year is altered.

The collision (perfectly head-on). It vastly depends on the speed. If it's very slow, it'll probably be diverted from the sun by the other planets and solar winds. If it's fast but not relativistic, it'll probably cause massive solar flares and very obvious sun spots for a while. At relativistic speeds (a sizeable fraction of the speed of light), though, it would be a lot of energy. Something big would probably happen when the extremely fast planet smashes into the dense core of the sun, probably. I'm not sure what though. Maybe it would temporarily strengthen fusion and cause some sort of micro supernova?

The collision(glancing blow). The sun is massive but most of its volume is pretty wispy. Most of its volume is a lot less dense than a planet, so the planet would likely have a pretty dramatic effect on it. If it's fast enough, it might even come out on the other side, smashed to pieces by gravitational forces and thermal shock. It might expel a lot of plasma in a stream, like a squishy body shot with the fastest bullet in the world. A bullet on a curved trajectory though, because the proximity to the sun's core would likely steer it significantly. If the planet was going fast enough to escape despite the friction having it slowed down and the massive gravitational pull, then I could imagine pretty much a shotgun of planet chunks shot through the solar system. It might not hit anything, and probably won't considering how much of the solar system is empty space, but if it does, it would be catastrophic for, say, Earth.

As for long term effects, if the planet indeed merges into the sun, it would increase the sun' metallicity (content in elements heavier than helium) by a tiny percentage. It might affect its long term evolution by a very small margin. If it's a glancing blow that's not extremely fast and it's just right to create a mostly stable orbit, it might form a new asteroid belt that may or may not coalesce into a new planet in time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The planet would have burned to a crisp a long time before it even touched the sun. A waft of residual gases would maybe get close enough, which does exactly nothing.

It's the equivalent of tossing a single grain of hail into an active volcano.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I could see that if a planet slowly spiraled into it, but the question specifically asks about a direct collision.

Do you really think silicon and iron and other relatively heavy elements can simply be vaporized that quickly?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Uh, yes. Absolutely. The corona of the sun alone is about 5 million km thick and has temperatures of >1 million degrees C.

Crossing that distance takes about 0.3 light minutes. For a planet with a somewhat large mass traveling at a fraction of that (average travel speed of celestial objects is around 1000-10000 km/min, depending on its mass), it would take between 83 and 833 hours (3.5-35 days).

For reference, the distance from earth to moon is about 400000km (and takes a rocket 3 days to traverse), so the sun's radius is about 12x that. Just put things into perspective.

Silicon vaporizes at 3650°C, iron at 3500°C. A couple days at a million degrees? Yeah it's vaporized alright.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Seeing as how the sun has flares that are wider across than the earth is, I don’t think it would do a whole lot. I’m on the fence, though. The surface of a star is the way it is and where it is because of two things: the immense pressure of the nuclear furnace and the immense gravity holding it together. Those two things basically fight against each other and determine how far out the surface of the star is.

I have to wonder if disturbing that equilibrium just for a second might cause a little “burp” or something.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I would expect the rogue to backstab and do crit damage on the dark side of the sun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

maybe a dark-elf rogue planet

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 month ago (1 children)

All the people on that planet would die.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Due to their free floating nature, rogue planets are typically uninhabited.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Hey, a vacuous truth is still a truth!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Wait, rougue planets are a thing? Ive just always assumed they either stayed in orbit or got blown to smithereens when their atar went kaboom!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yes. So we like to think.

;-)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I see you're painted by Neo Rembrandt?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Probably the biggest threat to us would be the rogue planet kicking some largish objects out in the Oort cloud into new orbits as it passed through. Some of the orbits would go into the inner solar system and could intersect with the Earth at some point.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Thankfully the chances of that happening would be reduced by the difference between the solar system's ecliptic place vs that of the Milky Way. According to this Stack Exchange user, it's a 60.2-degree difference. Illustrated beautifully here.

Then again, it isn't called a "cloud" for nothing. Still, a large chunk of it is theorized to be aligned with the plane of the solar system.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

Sun says yum.

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