《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第116期:太陽熄滅之日(1)
SUNLESS EARTH
Q. What would happen to the Earth if the Sun suddenly switched off?
Q．如果太陽某一天突然滅了，地球會怎麼樣？——Many, Many readers
——許許多多無窮無盡的讀者
A. THIS IS PROBABLY THE single most popular submission to What If.
A．這個問題可能是What If欄目收到的最多的問題了……Part of why I haven't answered it is that it's been answered already. A Google search for “what if the Sun went out” turns up a lot of excellent articles thoroughly analyzing the situation.
那爲什麼我到現在都不回答這個問題呢？部分原因是這個問題已經被回答過了。隨手谷歌一下“太陽熄滅了會怎麼樣”就能找到許許多多詳細分析這種情況的好文章。However, the rate of submission of this question continues to rise, so I've decided to do my best to answer it.
不過，自從前幾期講到了日落，問這個問題的人就更多了，所以我還是盡我所能回答一下。If the Sun went out . . .
如果太陽熄滅了……We won't worry about exactly how it happens. We'll just assume we figured out a way to fast-forward the Sun through its evolution so that it becomes a cold, inert sphere. What would the consequences be for us here on Earth?
我們不用在意太陽是怎麼熄滅的，假設我們找到了一個辦法，能像快進一樣加速太陽的老化過程，直到它變成一個又寒冷又荒蕪的大球體。那對於在地球上的我們來說，是好還是壞呢？Let's look at a few . . .
先來看看一些好處……Reduced risk of solar flares: In 1859, a massive solar flare and geomagnetic storm hit the Earth. Magnetic storms induce electric currents in wires. Unfortunately for us, by 1859 we had wrapped the Earth in telegraph wires. The storm caused powerful currents in those wires, knocking out communications and in some cases causing telegraph equipment to catch fire.
耀斑威脅減小：1859年，一場來自太陽的巨大的耀斑產生的超級磁暴襲擊了地球。磁暴會在電線中產生感應電流，糟糕的是1859年地球上到處都是電報線。磁暴使得這些電線中產生了巨大的電流，切斷了人們的通信聯繫，還導致一些電報設備起火燃燒。Since 1859, we've wrapped the Earth in a lot more wires. If the 1859 storm hit us today, the Department of Homeland Security estimates the economic damage to the US alone would be several trillion dollars-more than every hurricane that has ever hit the US combined. If the Sun went out, this threat would be eliminated.
自1859年以後，地球上的電線更多了。如果1859年那個規模的磁暴襲擊如今的地球，據美國國土安全局估計，單是美國就會有數萬億美元的經濟損失——比所有襲擊過美國的颶風帶來的損失加在一起還要多。如果太陽熄滅了，那這個威脅就不復存在了。
