It is the year 2057 and our sun is dying, plunging the earth into a solar winter which threatens to wipe out all life upon it. In a last ditch attempt to save humanity, a team of scientists set out for the sun in order to fire a nuclear device into its mass and reignite the fading star. It's an interesting theory about how we'd save our sun if it really was dying, but sadly for the science geeks it's also one which is completely full of factual holes. For one, our sun isn't likely to die any time soon - in fact, scientists estimate that it will stick around for at least another 3 billion years. On top of that, when it does the last thing that will happen is that earth will be consumed by a solar winter - if anything, it will grow into an enormous red giant which consumes the earth in a ball of flames. Sunshine might have had media-friendly physicist Brian Cox on board as a consultant, but when it came down to it creative licence took precedence over scientific accuracy. Perhaps this should be expected - after all, the film transforms into something of a slasher thriller in the final scenes, so the boring sciency stuff probably doesn't really matter.
