The sun's not simply made of gas, no, no, no. . The sun is a maisma, of incandescent plasma. Electrons are free, a fourth state of matter; not solid, liquid, or gas.

Unfortunately their factually incorrect song, The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas, is a much easier song on the ears.

. . . then the headline was obviously in error.

Otherwise, global warming would be getting a lot worse very rapidly.

Of course, eight minutes after the event, we would all see it happen, and then in a matter of hours, our ionosphere would be brutally blasted away. but never fear! interstellar radiation won't kill us. Concussive forces from the atmosphere being stripped from the planet would turn us all into a fine molecular powder. Any surviving organisms would then get a lethal dose of X-rays and gamma radiation, before the planet is enveloped by solar plasma; the heat and magnetic forces would basically strip the planet down to a hard knob with a silica-iron crust with the consistency of laffy-taffy. You know, for good measure.

And the water bears will be like "wait, did something happen?"

Oh, what's that? Four dudes on horses? A guy with a hammer wrestling a snake? Pffft, how about every molecule you can think of is now condensing into rain on Jupiter!

Ever seen 'Supernova' with Peter Fonda? I didn't think so. Skip that one.

True, we won't know anything at all for eight minutes, since nothing travels faster than the speed of light (the Sun, for others reading who are uninitiated in the ways of astrophysics, is eight light minutes from Earth). However, the image of an exploding Sun would still reach us simultaneously with the initial shock waves, also traveling at the speed of light through space. That should do a number on us big enough to do us in, every mother's child.

Now, I could be wrong in assuming that these initial shock waves will be powerful enough to overwhelm our magnetic invisible protective shield, in which case it would take a little bit longer. However, our electronic communications devices will be down, even if we're not all dead yet, so there will be no headlines unless they set the type manually like Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman did with their old fashioned printing presses. By the time the newspapers are ready for distribution, we'll all be -- quite literally -- toast.

We all need to buy that "10 years of emergency food" supply some whacko keeps advertising on the bottom of web sites. The good news is all the food will get instantly microwaved!

But, under the circumstances, that would be just a small inconvenience.

Who says no, or low pay causes resentments.

We just put an end to the silly notion that solar power can actually displace oil and natural gas as the predominant source of power in the US.

Kudos go out to our operatives and those members of Congress who authorized NASA to provide the necessary payload space.

This also eliminates any wind power as the sun drives all air movement.

Thanks guys, you have made my day!

Because it would be several days before we would see any evidence of it.

eight minutes

(blinded by the light)

gravitons would react quicker than light. The disaster would be instantaneous.

No gravity...

That seems a subject one should not bring up around a chatty four year old.

It may not have exploded but the Earth is flat you know.

which, of course, would have nothing to do with either the sun or explosions.

Isn't that the nature of fission?

I live near Athens, and it *has* been really hot lately.

they'd really be panicking.

We're goin to die.
Six pints of bitter. And quickly please, the world's about to end

we have no way of knowing if the sun "just exploded". If it exploded right this second, it would take eight minutes for us to find out, at which point we probably wouldn't live long enough to register the event.

While I can see the sun from my front porch, I stll can't see Russia.
I guess the sun must be closer than Russia is to Alaska.


(Tongue in cheek from a retired semi-astrophysicist)