In message , Alex Stephens Jr
writes

"John Hall" wrote in message
Is the last question intended to be rhetorical? If the sun wasn't there,
Earth would be frozen solid, possibly with some of the gases in the
atmosphere turning into liquid form. There'd be a certain amount of heat
escaping from the molten core of the planet, but not enough to prevent
it being extremely cold.
--
John Hall
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people
from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-83)

Not sure about that one John, without the gravitational hold of the sun, the
Earths core would be long since frozen solid.

Alex.


One the one hand, the internal heat of the earth is generally believed
to be predominantly produced by radioactive decay, latent heat of
solidification at the inner/outer core boundary, and release of
potential energy through gravitational sorting - not from tidal heating.
That is the absence of the sun (and moon) wouldn't result in a cold
Earth interior.

One the other hand, most of the interior of the Earth is, if not frozen
solid, squashed solid. It just happens to be at pressures at which
solids flow, slowly.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley