What If the Sun Disappeared and Never Came Back? — Transcript

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1. 0:00The Sun just vanished.
2. 0:04Not dimmed. Not hidden. Gone.
3. 0:08But look. It's still there.
4. 0:12Its last light is still on the way to you.
5. 0:17It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to get here.
6. 0:21Until then, you see a Sun that no longer exists.
7. 0:26Its pull is still on the way too.
8. 0:30So the Earth keeps curving around an empty point.
9. 0:35Nobody on this street knows yet.
10. 0:39Every bird, every car, every phone. Still normal.
11. 0:44Out in space, the last sunlight is racing toward you.
12. 0:48About 20 million kilometres left.
13. 0:53Three.
14. 0:55Two.
15. 0:57One.
16. 1:02No sunset. The light just stops.
17. 1:06The sky has nothing left to glow with.
18. 1:10And the Earth lets go.
19. 1:14It flies off in a straight line. 30 km every second.
20. 1:18The Moon went dark too.
21. 1:23The streetlights think it's night. They're right.
22. 1:27Your phone still works. The power is still on.
23. 1:32Jupiter is still shining.
24. 1:36Its light left it before the Sun was gone.
25. 1:41Now it's gone too.
26. 1:45The planets are going out, one by one.
27. 1:50Saturn holds on longest. Two and a half hours.
28. 1:54Now the only lights are stars. And us.
29. 1:59Not freezing yet. The ground kept a day of sunlight.
30. 2:04The first night with no morning.
31. 2:11One day. The frost doesn't melt.
32. 2:15With no sunlight, the weather starts to die down.
33. 2:20Every plant on Earth has stopped making food.
34. 2:24The grass is already dying.
35. 2:30One week. Colder than any winter this street has seen.
36. 2:34Below minus 18, averaged over the whole planet.
37. 2:40Ice is spreading across the oceans.
38. 2:44The ice works like a lid, keeping the heat below.
39. 2:49Under it, the water stays liquid. For now.
40. 2:53Near volcanoes, the ground's own heat still keeps people warm.
41. 3:02One month. The leaves are gone.
42. 3:06No more clouds. The sky is perfectly clear.
43. 3:11Stars you have never seen from here are out tonight.
44. 3:16Big trees hold out longest, living on stored sugar.
45. 3:20Some could last for decades.
46. 3:25The Earth is still spinning. Nobody can tell.
47. 3:30Every day is just another night.
48. 3:34Nobody has seen the Sun in almost a year.
49. 3:40One year. Minus 73 degrees.
50. 3:44We are already further out than Jupiter's orbit.
51. 3:49No Sun pulling us back. Nothing slowing us down.
52. 3:53Life on the surface is almost over.
53. 4:00One by one, the lights go out.
54. 4:04With no one to run them, the power stations fall silent.
55. 4:10Under five years. We cross Neptune's orbit.
56. 4:14Behind us, every planet has flown off its own way.
57. 4:19Our street is now on a planet without a star.
58. 4:23There may be billions of worlds like this, drifting in the dark.
59. 4:30Each one alone.
60. 4:35It's colder now than Antarctica has ever been.
61. 4:40Nineteen years. We pass where the Sun's wind used to end.
62. 4:44From here, the Sun would still outshine the full Moon.
63. 4:49Sunlight would now take days to get here.
64. 4:55This is interstellar space. Your street is in it.
65. 4:59Deep in the rock, some bacteria are still alive.
66. 5:04Every minute, the Earth travels another 1,800 km.
67. 5:10A thousand years. The deep oceans may be frozen now.
68. 5:14Some scientists think it would take far longer.
69. 5:19Deep under your feet, the rock is still warm.
70. 5:23The Earth's core keeps making its own heat.
71. 5:28Heat from radioactive rock, slowly leaking out.
72. 5:33It will stay warm down there for millions of years.
73. 5:40Ten thousand years.
74. 5:44The houses, the cars, the street. All still here.
75. 5:49Nothing rusts. Nothing rots. It's too cold.
76. 5:55The stars have started to drift.
77. 5:59Some are coming closer. Some are moving away.
78. 6:04Every star you see is moving too.
79. 6:09Slowly, the constellations are changing shape.
80. 6:15Our speed hasn't changed. 30 km every second.
81. 6:22Where the Sun used to be, there is only dark.
82. 6:3042,000 years. As far as the nearest star.
83. 6:34But no star is waiting on our path.
84. 6:39Space is so empty, we will probably never hit anything.
85. 6:45On your watch, not even seven minutes have passed.
86. 6:51Above us, new stars. Below us, the same street.
87. 6:58The cold is creeping deeper into the rock.
88. 7:04Minus 182 degrees. The air can't stay a gas much longer.
89. 7:10A million years. The air starts to fall as snow.
90. 7:14Oxygen first. Then nitrogen.
91. 7:19It settles over everything.
92. 7:24There's no air left to breathe. Or to carry a sound.
93. 7:29It's quieter here than anywhere on Earth has ever been.
94. 7:34The last of the warmth leaks away into space.
95. 7:40Ten million years. Minus 240 degrees.
96. 7:44Nothing changes after this. A dark street, crossing the galaxy.
97. 7:49It could go on like this for billions of years.
98. 7:568 minutes and 20 seconds.
99. 8:00That's how far behind the Sun you always are.