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This is the setting for the
movie Sunshine: the sun is dying and
Earth is frozen in a solar winter!
OK,
that's not entirely true. "The plot does not revolve around
the Sun dying in the normal sense: this is not due for around
five billion years based on our understanding of nuclear fusion.
It has instead been 'infected' with a 'Q-ball' - a
supersymmetric nucleus, left over from the big bang - that is
disrupting the normal matter. This is a theoretical particle
that scientists at CERN are currently trying to confirm, and was
one of the many contributions of the science advisor. The film's
bomb is meant to blast the Q-ball to its constituent parts which
will then naturally decay, allowing the Sun to return to
normal."[1]
Except none of that was ever explained in the movie.
Anyway, a
few years ago, a ship called Icarus I was dispatched to detonate
the bomb inside the Sun and trigger the re/birth of a new star,
but the ship was mysteriously lost. Now a second ship, the
Icarus II, is sent with a bomb consisting of Earth's last viable
resources to complete that same mission. The funny thing is,
they actually expect to make it back home alive. Needless to
say, that doesn't happen. |