What If the Sun Was Made of Vaseline: The Stunning Cosmic Consequences
Imagine a catastrophic scenario where the sun transforms into a bizarre substance like Vaseline on a cosmic scale. This thought experiment delves into the radical changes that such a transformation would bring to our solar system and beyond. While the idea may seem far-fetched, it provides a remarkable insight into the complex processes of stellar evolution and the fascinating world of cosmology.
Everyone Dies
Assuming a sun made of Vaseline, the extreme temperature would cause it to disintegrate into its constituent elements—hydrogen and carbon. Hydrogen would form a protective outer shell, while carbon would sink towards the core and form an inert mass. This structure is remarkably similar to what can be observed in red giant stars, which have core carbon and a hydrogen shell.
According to stellar evolution theory, a sun made of Vaseline would drastically accelerate the timeline of its evolution. It would expand to over 100 times its current radius, cool down from approximately 5700 kelvins to around half that temperature, and increase its luminosity by approximately three orders of magnitude. This would make it about 1000 times more luminous than today. This dramatic increase in temperature and luminosity would make life on Earth impossible, as the planet's surface would transform into a molten lava sea.
Transformative Phases
As the sun's hydrogen shell exhausts its fuel, a layer of helium would form between the shell and the carbon core. This hydrogen shell would eventually trigger a sequence of events known as "thermal pulsing," causing the sun to expand to over 300 times its current radius, making it a "Mira Variable." Every one hundred thousand years, the helium shell would undergo a flash of nuclear fusion, losing a massive amount of mass in the process. Over time, these events would lead to the sun losing so much mass that nuclear fusion becomes impossible.
In a mere thousand years, the sun would shrink down to about a millionth of its original size, roughly the size of Earth. By this point, the sun has lost a quarter of its original mass, and its surface temperature would be around 250,000 kelvins. At this stage, the sun would be classified as a white dwarf, the final stage of a star like the sun. Over the next few trillion years, the white dwarf would slowly cool down, eventually becoming a "black dwarf" that no longer emits any visible light. Simultaneously, all the remaining hydrogen in the universe would be consumed, marking the end of the star age.
The Future of the Sun
There are several possible futures for a sun that has become a white dwarf. One scenario involves the accumulation of mass from interstellar space over quadrillions of years, eventually reaching 1.44 solar masses and exploding as a Type Ia supernova.
If the sun does not accumulate significant mass, quantum tunneling could transmute its atoms into iron-56, resulting in a hypothetical "iron star." This would be a highly stable state, extremely rare and of immense scientific interest.
Over virtually infinite timescales, the iron star would collapse into a black hole and subsequently evaporate through Hawking radiation. The final and most intriguing possibility is that protons decay, leading to the gradual mass loss of the black dwarf and its eventual disappearance from the universe, leaving only ultra-low energy radiation behind.
Conclusion
No matter which path the sun's fate ultimately takes, this thought experiment reveals the incredible complexity and beauty of stellar evolution. It highlights the delicate balance of forces in our cosmos and the profound impact that even the tiniest changes can have on the universe's grand cycle of life and death.