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Asked by anon-217583 to Savannah, Philippe, Lucy, Joanna, Harrison, Edoardo on 10 Jun 2019.
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Edoardo Vescovi answered on 10 Jun 2019:
It depends on the size.
The sun is a giant gas ball that “burns” hydrogen at the temperature of 15 millions degrees (Celsius) in its core, while its surface shines at 5000. To get an idea of how hot it is, think that the most resistant metals melt at around few thousands and water boils at 100. If an apple-sized piece would land on Earth, it would quickly give away its heat and evaporate without damage. Without pressure and temperature, the gas stops “burning” and expands.
I think a part of the size of a mountain or a small island would instead create a big heat wave and make part of the oceans evaporate, much like what happened when large asteroids hit Earth in the past, maybe at the end of the era of dinosaurs.
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Philippe Gambron answered on 10 Jun 2019:
It would not be very likely. If something had to land on something else, it would rather be the Earth on the Sun because the latter is heavier so it attracts the Earth. We could imagine a scenario where a bit of the Sun could reach the Earth. For example, in 5 billions years, the Sun will run out of hydrogen and start swelling. It will become a red giant. This will be enough to toast the Earth.
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Harrison Prosper answered on 10 Jun 2019:
Well, it all depends on which piece of the sun lands on Earth and how big a piece. If it were the Sun’s atmosphere, nothing much would happen except some glorious glowing in the night sky. The reason is that the Sun’s atmosphere, although extremely hot (about 2 million centigrade), is incredibly thin. If a piece of the sun’s photosphere (its “surface”) would fall to Earth, it too would likely not cause too much trouble unless, of course, there was a lot of it. If, on the other hand a piece of the sun’s core were to land on earth, since the core is a thermonuclear reactor, we might expect to have a bad day! Except that what keeps the reactor going is the enormous pressure in the sun’s core. If a piece of the sun’s core were removed, it would expand explosively and the reactions would stop immediately, so again we may be ok!
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Savannah Clawson answered on 10 Jun 2019:
The first thing you have to ask is why is there a bit of the Sun on the Earth? If the Sun has expanded so much that it has reached the Earth, then we are definitely in trouble (and this will happen in about 5 billion years from now when the Sun becomes a red giant – it is currently in the main sequence of its life where it will spend the majority of its lifetime). Another possibility is that the Earth has fallen out of orbit (possibly from a collision with a very large object like an asteroid) and the gravitational force of the Sun pulls the Earth inwards – the Sun is heavier than the Earth and heavier objects have a larger gravitational pull. Again, we are also in trouble in this scenario.
If we were to suddenly transport a small ball of the sun to the Earth, we would probably be okay as there would not be enough gravitational force to hold all of that burning gas together so it would expand and cool. The physics going on in the Sun is a delicate balance of different forces – the gravitational force is trying to pull all of the gas together into a core at high pressure, whereas the thermonuclear reactions are producing energy and heat that is making the Sun try to expand. These forces act in harmony to keep the Sun stable, for now…
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