Sunshine : the physics behind. no spoilers so dont worry!

appart from the fact that there would be no warhead on Earth big enough to do this... and oh dear me lets hope they will not manage to make them that big in the future... but how would they get this thing to the core without being destroyed prematurely due to high temperatures ?

Nah , see they wait till the sun actually goes out and then do it. Basically do it at night :lol:

Question: Would adding anything to the sun increases its mass therefore increasing the rate of fuel usage?

All having the effect of reducing the life of said star?

Or have I got it wrong again... (be gentle )

Adding anything higher up the periodic table than Iron will provide more fuel for the sun to burn. From Iron on down through the rest of the elements you have to also ADD extra energy to get those elements to fuse... which is why stars go BANG when they run out of the lighter elements and try to fuse Iron.

You definitely want to put your fingers in your ears when that happens to the sun!

Higher mass stars burn their fuel more rapidly than lower mass stars. Super giants burn very rapidly and then collapse into neutron stars, pulsars or black holes (live fast, die young - chug vodka shots and party like an animal) while the more wimpy main sequence jobs consume their fuel at a more sedate pace (a bit like having afternoon tea in polite company) and merely lift a butt-cheek to express their satisfaction... expelling some excess gas and leave a beautiful planetary nebula!

Stars are a lot like people!

Phil.

What year is the movie set in?

Made in 2006, set in the same year.

its actually set about 50 - 60 years into the future. the director set it then as its possible some mindboggling new physics could have been discovered, and also the technology in the movie wouldnt look too alien, and more close to what were used to.

My bad, sorry!

I understand that it takes a million years for the energy released in the suns core to reach the surface. So that means that if the reactions stopped tomorrow it would be a good few hundred thousand years before we would notice any difference in the suns energy output.

I doubt that Dave. The reactions themselves are adding to the balancing act between implosions, explosions, and gravitaional forces. The Sun's surface seems to 'stand still' as we see it, yet, just a couple thousand miles up from its surface, the corona is streaming away at tens of thousands of miles an hour at least.

While the reactions at the core do take hundreds of years at least to reach the surface (in the form of plamsa and electrons etc), if they were to suddenly stop now (say, with the flick of a switch) at the core, we would know pretty soon that happened! Probably in about 10 minutes - once the non-reaction reached the surface, and then taking 8 minutes and 45 seconds to reach us in the form of NO light!

Adding anything higher up the periodic table than Iron will provide more fuel for the sun to burn. From Iron on down through the rest of the elements you have to also ADD extra energy to get those elements to fuse... which is why stars go BANG when they run out of the lighter elements and try to fuse Iron.

eh you need to add energy in order to fuse anything higher than Iron.

When stars have converted everything up to Iron they require energy to go any further. They dont have the energy so the reactions stop. This stops the outward pressure and gravity wins over and collapses the star. That give enough energy for higher up elements to be created in the BANG.