Forums → WEPR → The sun dies

Well, I think it was supposed to be about 10 million years. (correct me if I am wrong.) Well, the sun is still young, so it is going to keep growing in size over the years, and it will eventually envelop Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth. Now after awhile, it will be unbarebly hot, so we will have to move to Mars. That is one reason why scientists are so interested in Mars. After Mars, we will have to go to Jupiter. As of now, it isn't even imagineable, but maybe tecnology will permit it in the future.

But when the sun actually dies, we will all be screwed. There will be a supernova and all of our solar system will probably be destroyed.

@XCoheedX: The sun has a projected lifespan of 10 Billion years, and it's been cooking for about 5 Billion, so we've got another 5 Billion years before we have to worry about the sun going all Red Giant on us. If humanity is still kicking around then, I think we'll have spread out enough that it won't be a big deal to whatever is calling itself human at that point.

@Bigbowla532: Jupiter has moons we could inhabit, although you're right that living on the planet itself isn't a fruitful endeavor. Unless we build floating cities and start calling the planet Bespin.

i like kanteh's idea

I've heard that the sun still has 3-5 billion years left. So it's not going to effect us. But when stars die, they experience a supernova. The star explodes and emits more energy that it had emitted in its lifespan. This would probably destroy several planets in out solar system. After that the dead star often collapses and turns into a black hole. It's pretty cool stuff.

Now ponder about this: the sun may continue to grow but it's fuel source isn't infinite either. When that gas fart of a star depletes its hydrogen source...it will implode and form a hole just like all other planets who run out of the "good stuff."

Okay, if you're concerned about life on Earth, I thought about this, and came up with the following (later found many sources to back it up):

Either way, we will not live until the sun becomes a Red Giant, unless we become a Multi-planetary species. This is because the sun's energy output is increasing gradually. It is estimated that in 900 million years the temperature on Earth will rise to a point where all life will be wiped out, far before the sun becomes a Red Giant.

I am currently not sure how much time the sun has left before it moves on to its next stage. I have tried researching it, and many of the sources vary. My (beloved) encyclopedia says it will be 5,000 million years before it does, but my book is rather old (first published around 2002.) Various other sources claim 7 - 8 billion years. As I already mentioned, this does not matter as Earth will be a cold, lifeless planet much sooner than that.

When the sun fuses the last of its hydrogen into helium (there is about 73.5% hydrogen in the sun's photosphere,) it will become 250 times its current size - a Red Giant. Its core will lose mass and it will swell up.

When the sun does turn into a Red Giant, it will engulf Mercury and Venus. There have been arguments among scientists about whether Earth will be engulfed. This is because the sun will lose mass which will loosen its gravitational pull on our little blue jewel. Earth will move farther away from the sun, it will move to a wider orbit.

There is hope that Earth might escape Venus' fate. As scientists observed a planet named 'V 391 Pegasi b' (No, they did not use spectroscopy to detect it,) they found out that it is pretty much in the same condition as Earth. It revolved around a star with an orbit approximately the same as Earth's. After its star became a Red Giant, it changed its center of gravity, and Pegasi's orbit migrated outward in an attempt to keep in pace with the changing star.

Now, this would mean that if our sun expanded past the current orbit of Earth, Earth would probably run back past the orbit of Mars. In simple words, for every step forward from the sun, the Earth will move one step back. Although there has been controversy about whether the Earth will be able to keep up with the rapid expansion of the sun.

We cannot really produce a theory based on what happened to Pegasi, as it is about the size of Jupiter. The changes of Earth surviving the sun's rampage is dim.

The sun will devour the family it cared for for so long...

-Skyla <3

I'm sorry, the censored word was 'outward' and if that is censored too, then 'move away' serves the same meaning.

Also I made a typo in my final sentence. I meant 'chances' not 'changes.'

Gah! I'm tired. Methinks I'll hibernate for a few hours.

It's way, way too far away for me to care. Simple truth.

This may be late but,it will be pretty much impossible to reach Jupiter. First of all, as Bigbowla532 said, Jupiter is made of hydrogen (89.8%) and helium (10.2%). Second,Jupiters core has so much gravity that it would crush you.
Third, Its very far away, it takes 1-2 years to reach Mars, one of the closest planets to Earth. Imagine how long
it will take to reach Jupiter. Fourth, The Astroid belt is in our way. and Fifth with it's its to cold there (-130! too cold to sustain life)Jupiters moons are cold as well. Maybe one moon Io,,Also know as the "Pizza moon" with its volcanoes could sustain life. Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and other moons are too cold as well. And lastly No water! alll ife needs water. Earth and plutos moon,Charon are known to have water.

Cool animation of sun's life.
Although, it is slightly wrong, eventually the Sun will run out of residual heat and become a black dwarf.
So to answer the claims of previous individuals:
-The sun will not supernova, it will release its outer shell and form what is known as a planetary nebula, our sun is too small to supernova.
-Io has a very thin atmosphere (exposing it to Jovian Radiation) with little water, it is also cold there covered by sulfur and sulfur dioxide frost, it would be unable to hold human life.
-Europa is mostly water, it has a hundred mile layer of it, many scientists primitive life might exist there.
-It only takes six years to get to Jupiter (Galileo probe)
-The asteroid belt is not very dangerous, we have sent many probes trough it.i

Contrary to popular beleif, the sun will not become a black hole, it was not big enough when born.

If you want to know more stuff about the universe, watch a show on the history chanel called The Universe.

the sun is young we dont need to worry about it going supernova on us for a long long time
but it could just freeze and it would become a dead star that turned into a diamond and we could mine it ooooo...
cool

@Brotheromar- I never said it would create a black hole, and yes black dwarfs will exist, just not for a long time.
@Purpledinosaur - The sun is half-way through its main sequence life. It is mainly composed of H & He, although it will eventually have carbon for diamonds but it will take approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000 years to become a cold black dwarf, which would then be so dense, that diamonds would not form and even if they did it would be unsafe to mine. However, I have heard that it is possible it literally rains diamonds in the lower atmosphere of Saturn or Jupiter (not sure which) due to the intense pressure. But, because of heat and pressure, you would have an incredibly tough time collecting those.

Europa is also believed to be a planet of ice.

Also I think salvation will come through a GIANT space station where everyone lives on while we go through the universe searching for a new suitable planet. Very bold move, but this (and maybe similar plans like a bunch of smaller ones maybe?) might be necessary.

A little off topic but, I heard somewhere that the closest star (or just a close star, correct me if im wrong) other then ours, can supernova at any second, and will affect us. So getting away is necessary. Another apocalyptic situation is that there is a galaxy on its way for a collision course with ours, and will happen, no doubt about it. that can be very catastrophic. So basically Earth is screwed, and we need to start thinking on a way out.