• Steve@startrek.website
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    2 months ago

    How much would the earth weigh if it was sitting on the frozen surface of the switched off Sun?

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      The Earth’s weight is 1.317×10^25 lbs. Gravity on the “surface” of the sun is about 28 times Earth’s, so if the Earth was a point mass (it isn’t) on the surface of the sun (there isn’t one, it’s a soup of plasma 250 mi deep) the Earth would weigh 3.687×10^26 lbs.

      Of course that couldn’t happen anyway because part of the reason the sun is the volume it is, is because of the nuclear reactions blowing it apart. If you stopped the sun, it would collapse (and that crushing energy would restart the reactions).

      Also the earth isn’t a point mass, so the point where the Earth and Sun are touching would experience more gravity than the point on the opposite side of the earth.