The What If? series by Randall Munroe and Henry Reich (previously at Neatorama) has returned to form with a theoretical question that would surely lead to the death of everyone on this planet. Humans have learned to concentrate light into a small space to produce lasers, which can be very dangerous depending on their power. What if the sun did that, with all its power? What if the star concentrated all its light and heat into a single laser beam the diameter of, say, a meter? As you might guess, this is not good. Yet how each of us would die depends on where you are when it happens, and what would happen to the planet itself might surprise you.
All in all, we would prefer the sun to stay the way it is, radiating heat and light in all directions, and sending us just the right amount to power life on earth.
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