how long does our sun have till it turns to a red giant?

Question

If you dont know the answer then do the favor of keeping your imagination to yourself.A red giant by the way is exactly how our sun will begin to expire because it is a M5 star and that is what happens to M5 stars.Someone here said a black hole,HAHA maybe you should find another section to be answering questions to.I thought that our sun was halfway through its cycle but didnt remember in millions of years what that came up to.

Answer 1

Our sun wont just go become a red giant once, it will go through a number of phases, including a red giant 2 times.

The Sun, in 4.5 billion years supposedly, WILL start to swell. It will get bigger, and en-gulp Mercury and Venus. The atmosphere will evaporate, water will melt, and life will be gone. The sun will swell enough to devour the earth, then shrink, grow, Turn into a planetary nebula, then shrink, for the last time, into a white dwarf. Then In a few billion years, cool down to a black dwarf.

The reason the sun expands, In case you want to know, Is because of its fuel supply. The energy from the sun comes from nuclear fusion of Helium. When the helium supply runs out, The sun has to fuse hydrogen, therefore making the sun swell. The sun then will Shrink, once its helium supply is restored, grow again, then cast out a planetary nebula (For what a planetary nebula looks like, Look up the ring nebula) then it wont have enough hydrogen to grow back to the normal size...and become a white dwarf. Eventually, it will cool into a black dwarf and die.

Answer 2

First of all our sun is not an M5 star which would be a red dwarf
star. Our sun is a G2 star which is an average Yellow star. We
have about 4 to 5 billion years before the sun expands into a red
giant star. However, the sun is getting brighter all the time. In
just 1.5 billion years the sun will be 15% brighter than it is now
and we will either have to build a giant sun shade for the Earth or
we will all have to move to Mars. If we would have been lucky
enough to be in orbit around an M5 red dwarf star we would
have between 20 and 50 Billion years until it expands into a red
giant. Very few red dwarfs in the whole universe have done so
since the universe began. I don't think any astronomer has
found a red dwarf that has turned into a red giant yet.

Answer 3

HELLO Isaac,

When our body reaches the teenager, our energy begins the reverse evolutionary way. It is an effect about the second law in thermodynamics, measured by entropy. Our body, from 15 to 50 years old is like a red giant in the sky (the sun already is a red giant). So, if our body lives about 80 years, red giant is about the half life time. If the sun really has 10 billions years (I think it is the better calculation), the sun will die at the next 10 billions years. If it does not die before 10 billion years I will loose and I will pay the beer. If it dies before that you must pay the beer. Right?

Answer 4

The sun is about 4.6 bilion years old. It has about 5 billion years left before it beging fusing helium together. When it reaches this stage, and more time passes, the fuel will again run low and outer shells will form, each one fusing a different element. it will then implode when it can not produce enough energy to counteract the pull of its own gravity. The sun will implode at about the time it starts fusing Iron. This is when it becomes a white dwarf and spends its last few million years dwindling down before it dies. The explosion(different shells of fusion around the center)is called a red giant. If our sun was larger it would turn into a super nova and still depending on its size, it would either turn into a neutron star or black hole.

Answer 5

The truth is that twentieth- and early twenty-first-century scientist can only guess how much time the sun until it becomes a red giant and explodes. And, scientist are not exactly if that is what will happen to it. There is the possibility that our sun might become a white dwarf star and then a black hole.

Answer 6

20 years

Answer 7

About 5 billion years.

At the same time! Another galaxy will intersect the Milky Way and there will be a collision and reordering of our galaxy.

So the earth will get fried or tossed around no matter what.

Answer 8

Hella long!

It's about halfway through its cycle, and I believe (too lazy to look right now) it's been around about 4 billion years. Not sure about red giant though.

Answer 9

Well, our bones will no longer be in existance.

In or at 5 Billion years when the nuclear material in the sun exhausts itself and can no longer contain the suns gravity.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=61582&page=2

Answer 10

It's a red giant right now, just stare at it for a good long time.