# How many gallons of water would it take to put the sun out?



## gigantes (Mar 25, 2007)

> *How many gallons of water would it take to put the sun out.?
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Yahoo! Answers

this was a pretty fun question so i felt like sharing.


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## j d worthington (Mar 25, 2007)

Um, I think they might want to check out their physics again.....


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## gigantes (Mar 25, 2007)

which part?

the question is obviously silly, but i believe the guy is right about the huge mass of water breaking down by its own gravity.  that same principle is how cosmic dust turns into stars in the first place.

one question would be, if gravity was somehow taken out of the equation regarding the giant mass of matter you wanted to throw at the sun, is there any amount of matter that could withstand being vaporised before actually reaching the sun?

in other words, what if you threw a vast rocky mass bigger than the sun's size right at the sun and most of it managed to get through.  what would happen then?  would the stellar fusion reactions somehow be snuffed out, or would the two masses simply combine to form a larger star?


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## j d worthington (Mar 25, 2007)

Well, considering that the mass of the sun is several times that of the entire solar system put together, for one thing. For another, the sun isn't, as it's usually called, "a flaming ball of gas", but a giant nuclear reactor... there are no flames to put out, as such.... Anything that can be put into it will break down and be used for fuel, unless you find something to damp out that reaction. And, considering the (proposed) state of the matter at the sun's core... this would be next to impossible (I'm tempted to say impossible, but I suppose theoretically it is possible). Water, however, is not likely to be feasible, no matter how much you've got....


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## gigantes (Mar 25, 2007)

thanks for answering, JD, altho i believe all such suppositions have already been addressed in the previous answers.


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## gigantes (Mar 25, 2007)

er, that was a bit rude.  sorry about that.

i pretty-much agree with you.


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## j d worthington (Mar 25, 2007)

gigantes said:


> er, that was a bit rude. sorry about that.
> 
> i pretty-much agree with you.


 
LOL. No problem!


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## chrispenycate (Mar 25, 2007)

Well, theoretically, the fusion reaction could be damped out by reducing the temperature sufficiently, and warter has a nice high thermal capacity and latent heat of vaporisation. Unfortunately, even ignoring the infall energy of the water, the sun is producing tons of energy per hour (the bikini explosion produced micrograms) It would be impossible to apply that much water (even if that much water existed is the local stellar region) fast enough for it to change the situation. 
Certainly the mass of the water would be considerably greater than that of the sun; an impressive drip.


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