What Would Happen If The Sun Disappeared ?

If the sun suddenly blinked out of existence, you'd have nothing to worry about.—for the first eight minutes, anyway. After that, all hell would likely break loose. Still, it wouldn't be the instantaneous end to life on Earth that you might think.

When The Light Go Down.

Light takes roughly eight minutes to reach Earth from the sun. For that reason, if the sun disappeared, we'd still see it in the sky for another eight minutes. But what about gravity? The sun is the anchor point of the solar system—at 333,000 times the mass of Earth, it exerts a hefty pull that keeps the planets locked in their orbits. If all that gravitational force disappeared, it would still take us eight minutes to feel it. That's because, according to Einstein's theory of relativity, gravity travels at the same speed as light. So go ahead, watch the rest of that Netflix episode. You'll be golden for another eight minutes.

Chaos Creeps In Slowly.

After that, though, Earth still wouldn't be snuffed out. Electricity would still work, and it would still take up to an hour for the light from our planets to be reflected back to Earth, so there would be a peaceful glow in the sky. With no sunlight, photosynthesis would stop, but that would only kill some of the plants—there are some larger trees that can survive for decades without it. Within a few days, however, the temperatures would begin to drop, and any humans left on the planet's surface would die soon after. Within two months, the ocean's surface would freeze over, but it would take another thousand years for our seas to freeze solid. By then, however, the atmosphere would collapse, radiation would seep in, and Earth would be an inhospitable wasteland drifting aimlessly through space. Lucky for you, the sun is showing no signs of disappearing any time soon.

Your Brain Makes Your Extra Antisocial When You're Sick

Being sick gives you an amazing excuse to cozy up on the couch and burn through four seasons of "RuPaul's Drag Race" in a single sitting. No shame. Your preference for shutting out the rest of the world while you're under the weather isn't just your imagination, either. When you're feeling sick and antisocial, blame your brain.

Leave me alone.

It's hard to get out of the house when you're sick, but that's not just because you're not feeling strong enough to put pants on. You're getting subconscious signals from your brain to ignore people at all costs. Because your immune system is connected to your brain, it may, in fact, influence your social behavior.

The vagus nerve is the connector; it's a network of fibers that  parts of your body like your gut and lymph nodes. This nerve can detect cytokines, which are compounds your immune system shoots out when you're battling an illness. Your brain gets word of the illness through the  nerve, and before you know it, you're glued to the couch.

Researchers speculate there are two main reasons your brain puts this homely spell on you. It's an evolutionary adaptation to keep you and the people around you healthy. If you stay inside when you're sick, you're much less likely to spread your illness around to other people. That wouldn't be beneficial for the survival of our species, right? Holing up at home also gives your body the time to fight the infection and bounce back.

Flip It And Reverse It.

Before you go blaming your immune system on your antisocial-ness, it can work in the total opposite way, too. If your health is firing on all cylinders, your brain may nudge you toward being extra extroverted. In a 2010 study, participants were given a flu shot. In the 48 hours following receiving the flu shot, participants "interacted with significantly more people, and in significantly larger groups."