IF THE SUN WENT OUT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2700, 26 February 1924, Page 4

IF THE SUN WENT OUT.

Wonderful things are constantly happening in the universe; but what if the sun were suddenly extinguished? The earth, and evei’y living thing upon it would be doomed in a very short time. Why, at the end of the first week the frost would have destroyed all but the hardest of the vegetation. Our lakes and rivers would freeze solid. Even our oceans would be soon turned to ice. And the ice by its greater bulk compared with water, would encroach upon and overwhelm the land, until only the tops of the highest mountains would show above the glacial sea. These mountain summits would themselves be covered with deep snow, or ice crystals, which had fallen because of the water vapour in the atmosphere having frozen. Mankind would he destroyed to the uttermost ends of the globe. Neither would the very lowest forms of organised creatures escape the icy death. The stars would be always looking down our derelict earth, for it would be one long night. No bright-shining moon would ever rise, for our satellite borrows its splendour from the sun. The earth would not stop turning round on its axis, nor would it cease to revolve about the dead sun. There are believed to be many dead suns in the universe, all travelling through space at a great speed. Would our dead sun be doomed to an eternal night? Perhaps not. Perhaps, in the course of its wanderings —at a speed of about twelve miles a seepud—it might meet with another celestial derelict. If so, then appalling would be the impact. Its light and heat would be revived. The sun, in brief, would be the impact. Its light and heat would be revived. The sun,' in brief, would be born again. And what of that icy tomb, the earth? It would melt as a flake of snow in the fire.