SCIENCE FICTION | DYSTOPIAN | STORY SERIES | PART 1
The Day the Sun Went Dark
No one thought that was possible | Part 1
“The Sun will turn into a Red Giant in about 4 billion years and grow large enough to engulf Mercury, Venus and Earth. Mars will be spared but will be somewhat scorched.
Jupiter, Saturn and the other outer planets will remain safe though. In fact due to the increased solar intensity they will turn rather balmy. So some of their satellites will turn habitable.”
“Professor Andrews I’ve heard Earth will turn uninhabitable long before that.”
“Indeed Mr Turner. A few hundred million years of habitability remain for our planet — assuming we do not greenhouse ourselves to death within the next couple of centuries, of course. We will need to evacuate Earth way before its oceans start boiling.”
“Evacuate? All of us?”
“Yes, all of us. Unless we discover habitable exoplanets and develop the tech to reach them the Jupiter system is our next best shot. Jupiter’s satellites are barely protected by their host planet’s strong magnetic field and radiation, so it would not be easy.
We would need to build huge magnetically shielded domes to live in. Domes strong enough to withstand the shedding of the outer layers of the Sun later on. Assuming by that time we’re still trapped in our solar system, which I find highly unlik…”
Suddenly the day turned into night. Professor Andrews, head of Harvard’s Department of Astrophysics, was being interviewed at the campus’ garden on a sunny August morning by CWNT reporter Paul Turner.
They both looked at the dark sky, illuminated only by the lights Turner’s camera guy turned on. The reporter looked puzzled.
“I didn’t hear anything about a solar eclipse today. Did you Professor?”
Professor Andrews did not speak. He kept looking at where the Sun used to be. He looked shocked, and soon was petrified. His face was rapidly losing color, looking even whiter due to the cold artificial light.
“This… this is not possible! Are we… are we dreaming? Is this a dream Mr Turner?” he shouted and stood up. He grabbed Turner’s shoulders, shaking him violently.
“Tell me Mr Turner!! Are we dreaming??” Paul Turner freaked out and his cameraman had to intervene to pull the Professor from him.
The Professor started pinching himself to rule out dreaming. He then took a fork from his empty plate and stabbed his palm hard. He cried from the pain, as blood started dripping from his wound.
Turner was getting nervous watching the Professor, who had a reputation of a very calm and highly composed man. He gave him a tissue.
“What’s going on Professor? Why did the Sun go dark?”
For the first time in quite a while the Professor said three words his mouth rarely formed:
“I… I don’t know. But if the Sun does not turn back on we’re all dead. Within weeks.”
Thank you kindly for reading 🙏🏽 In Part 2 I go a bit deeper down the solar rabbit hole.
Inspired by this poem of Carlo Zeno:
Another dark science fiction tale you might enjoy:
