• Question: What would happen if a star as bis as the VY Canis Majoris consumed dour sun or a star of a similar size?

    Asked by to Amy, Anita, Daryl, Nimesh, Sandra on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anita Thomas

      Anita Thomas answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      decimusburton, I have no idea what would happen, but I do know that I wouldn’t want to be standing anywhere nearby!

    • Photo: Daryl Jones

      Daryl Jones answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Well, if it consumed our sun I think it would also consume us! I would like to hope this would happen really quick, and that we wouldn’t feel anything!

    • Photo: Amy Monaghan

      Amy Monaghan answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Hey Decimusburton, what an interesting question! You’ll make a great astrophysicist or engineer with questions like these 🙂

      So I had to do a bit of research because I wanted to answer the question properly. Yes if it consumed our sun we would all die and the earth would be consumed but what else would happen?

      VY Canis Majoris is a red supergiant and if it was in the place of our sun it would consume everything in the solar system up to Jupiter! It’s quite a controversial star because it’s both bigger and colder than anyone thought this kind of star could become.

      I think the most likely thing that would happen if it consumed our sun or a similar yellow dwarf would be an awesome explosion at the point of impact, and some great fireworks whilst the hydrogen from our sun was rapidly used up. But I don’t think there would be enough energy to stop the star fusing helium or cause a supernova – I think that would require a much greater star or energy input.

      I’m definitely no expert but that’s my 2 cents anyway 🙂 Maybe ask the guys in the astronomy zone too! Thanks for giving me such an interesting subject to think about though!

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