How much energy would be needed to move the sun?
Somewhat of a stoner hypothetical physicist question and not a pure pragmatic science question - but let's say future scientists somehow detect there is some impending hazard on our solar system. Maybe it's a collision with another star, maybe it's some kind of cosmic radiation - I don't know.
- How much energy would be required to physically move the sun X light years away from that hazard? And how can that function be described in terms of the energy actually generated by the sun itself over time?
- If there was some impending hypothetical disaster, would it make more quantifiable sense for future humanity to move the sun X distance away from that disaster or would it just be better to move all of humanity of mass Y distance Z to another habitable planet somewhere in the habitable zone of the galaxy?
Edit: I am asking question (2) because I am assuming that humanity would need to travel there at a really fast speed if it was a radiation event, and that the sun shields a decent amount of cosmic radiation if you push it far enough away. Maybe in situation Y we would have to go close to the speed of light (taking huge amounts of energy) for cosmic radiation, but slower for a collision event.
Posted Dec 29, 2011, 2:14 AM UTC · edited
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