What Happens If the Sun Is Suddenly Extinguished?

As part of their ongoing “What If?” series, Randall Munroe of xkcd and Henry Reich of MinutePhysics answered the common query of “What happens if the sun goes out?”. The response was very amusing noting all of the benefits of an extinguished sun and the one very large drawback.

What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off? is probably the single most popular question submitted to What If.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.