• Question: How much water would it take to put out the sun?

    Asked by anon-181143 on 5 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Claudia Bonfio

      Claudia Bonfio answered on 5 Jun 2018:

      The Sun is not properly “burning”, it emits radiation as visible and UV light, and infrared radiation also (that’s mostly why you fell warm when exposed to sunlight). If it was burning though, you would need a huge huge amount of water, more than what we have on Earth =)

    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 5 Jun 2018:

      As Claudia rightly says, the sun is not actually burning. In fact, if we threw lots of water on it, it would actually burn bigger and brighter! Also, it is not something we want to do, as without the sun, Earth would turn into a massive ball of ice!

    • Photo: Damian Mole

      Damian Mole answered on 5 Jun 2018:

      You might regret attempting that! Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms (i.e. H2O) and you might find that the hydrogen and oxygen actually feed the fire rather than quenching it. Could be embarrassing if not fatal. In all seriousness, however, that’s why you don’t put water on certain fires e.g. burning metal and some chemicals, because you can end up fuelling the fire rather than putting it out.

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