Sunday 18 March 2012

the sun - If the Sun got larger, but maintained its luminosity, would the Earth get hotter or colder?

A recent question If the Sun were bigger but colder, Earth would be hotter or colder? asked - if the Sun got bigger and cooler, would the Earth heat up or cool down. I think the answer to that is mainly that it depends on the final luminosity.



However, what I want to know here (hypothetically), is if the Sun got larger and it's effective temperature decreased such that it's luminosity was unchanged; how would that affect the equilibrium temperature of the Earth? I suspect the answer may involve the wavelength dependence of the albedo, emissivity and atmospheric absorption of the Earth.



Another, less hypothetical, way of asking this is, if you put an Earth-like planet at different distances from stars with a variety of temperatures, such that the total flux incident at the top of the atmosphere was identical, how would the temperatures of those planets compare?

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