Is it scientifically possible that the Sun will not rise tomorrow?

[needimprovement]

If not, why not? If yes, in what way possible?

[ydoaPs]

Well, the 'sun rising' is mainly from the rotation of the Earth although the elliptical orbit has an effect. If a large enough impact occurred at the correct angle, it could theoretically stop the rotation of the Earth. It would obviously be the largest impact in history and would have devastating consequences on life due to the dust cloud, heat of impact, seismic activity from the impact, and tidal waves.

 

Then you have the aftermath; the water and core will still want to spin. That means the seismic activity and tidal waves mentioned above would be even worse. It will also affect the magnetic field making us vulnerable to radiation from space as well as solar flares.

 

Now you still have to deal with the orbit. An impact large enough to stop our orbit would destroy the Earth. Even if the Earth were destroyed, the cessation of the orbit would cause the Earth to zoom into the Sun(an orbit is basically the Earth falling into the Sun but traveling sideways fast enough to continually miss it).

[Moontanman]

Anything energetic enough to stop the rotation of the Earth immediately would turn the entire surface into molten lava. An object 300 miles in diameter is enough to boil away the oceans and vaporise the salts of the ocean as well, heating the surface to a dull red heat but such an impact would not be enough to slow the earth down to any degree measurable by anything other than very precise instruments. Yes it is possible to stop the sun from rising but at the expense of everything on the Earth. The depth of heating would likely not be enough to wipe all microbial life as some very heat tolerant microbes would persist deep in the earths crust but all surface life would be destroyed.

[Janus]

Well, the 'sun rising' is mainly from the rotation of the Earth although the elliptical orbit has an effect. If a large enough impact occurred at the correct angle, it could theoretically stop the rotation of the Earth. It would obviously be the largest impact in history and would have devastating consequences on life due to the dust cloud, heat of impact, seismic activity from the impact, and tidal waves.

 

Then you have the aftermath; the water and core will still want to spin. That means the seismic activity and tidal waves mentioned above would be even worse. It will also affect the magnetic field making us vulnerable to radiation from space as well as solar flares.

 

Now you still have to deal with the orbit. An impact large enough to stop our orbit would destroy the Earth. Even if the Earth were destroyed, the cessation of the orbit would cause the Earth to zoom into the Sun(an orbit is basically the Earth falling into the Sun but traveling sideways fast enough to continually miss it).

 

You wouldn't have to worry about the orbit if the impact just slowed the Earth's rotation so that it matched the period of the orbit.(of course, realistically, slowing the rotation by that much isn't much different from stopping it completely, and there is no practical way of doing it without cooking the Earth.)

 

But even then, you wouldn't stop the Sun from rising and setting from some parts of the world. The Earth's orbit is elliptical, so the rotation and orbit will drift a bit out of sync, causing a East to West libration. If you were near the terminator, the Sun would bob up and down behind the horizon over the period of a year. Also, since the Earth is tilted to its orbit (assuming that the way in which the rotation was changed didn't alter this.), There will also be a North-South libration, and anyone closer to the poles than the arctic and antarctic circles will also see the Sun rise and set once a year.

[Mr Skeptic]

Yes. I'm pretty sure the earth eventually gets tidally locked with the sun like the moon is with the earth. But having the moon would really slow that down, so maybe not. In any case, that won't happen in your lifetime. I suppose something else could stop the earth's rotation (rather make it last 1 year), but I don't think if that happened you'd be alive to observe a lack of sunrise either.

[michel123456]

You can also travel at night continuously. At equator (which is rather stupid) you'll need to go faster than a jumbo jet.

But if you stay at the North pole in winter period, you can stay at home. The sun will not rise tomorrow. For you.

 

And since "the sun rise" is a relative observational event different for each observator, you can also die today, then for you the sun will not rise tomorrow, because there will be no tomorrow. For you.

 

Or humans could also change the shape of the planet building a Globus Cassus for example.

Edited December 28, 2010 by michel123456