What If You Had 8 Minutes Before the Sun Vanished?

What if the Sun just vanished, right now? ☀️ For eight minutes and twenty seconds you wouldn't notice a thing. Sunlight, and even gravity, take that long to cross the gap. Then the dark arrives all at once. Earth flies off in a straight line at 30 km/s, the planets switch off one by one, and the temperature starts falling toward minus seventy. Could anything survive? Some things could, and they never needed the Sun at all. You're on a city rooftop when it happens, and you did not bring a blanket 🧣. Would you rather see it coming, or not? Tell us in the comments. 🪐 Chapters 0:00 The Sun Vanishes 0:32 The 8-Minute Head Start 0:58 One by One 1:17 The Sky Goes Out 1:33 The Last Sunset 1:52 The Big Chill 2:12 The Weather Stops 2:34 Weaker Tides 2:50 Broken Body Clocks 3:10 Plants Go Hungry 3:30 Life Under the Ice 3:47 How Humans Survive 4:07 The Long Freeze 4:28 A Rogue Planet 4:51 Could It Actually Happen? 5:11 Last Light Sources NASA Planetary Fact Sheet: light travel times and orbital speeds Abbott et al. (2017), ApJ Letters 848 L13: gravitational waves and light from GW170817 Czeisler et al. (1999), Science: the human circadian period (about 24.2 hours) National Energy Authority of Iceland: geothermal heating of about 90% of homes NOAA: the Sun's share of the tide-raising force (about 46% of the Moon's) NOAA Ocean Exploration: life at hydrothermal vents Sumi et al. (2011), Nature: free-floating planetary-mass objects Sackmann, Boothroyd & Kraemer (1993), ApJ: Our Sun. III. Present and Future ESO: distance to Proxima Centauri (4.24 light years) Narration voice: AI-generated. Animation drawn entirely in code. Music: "Vastness" and "Xanthos" from Mixkit. Whatever Next: every what if has a what next. Subscribe for new episodes:    / @whatevernexttv   #WhatIf #Space #Animation