If our sun is in the Milky Way's "habitable" zone - how long before it moves out - and what happens then???

Answer 1

Our galaxy's "habitable zone" is probably extremely wide -- any area that's not too close to the centre would probably allow life to exist (given all the other variables like distance from the earth to the sun, etc.). Our sun actually orbits the centre of the Milky Way once every 200 million years or so. Some scientists speculate that occasional mass extinctions may occur if the sun passes through an area of the Milky Way where dust clouds are particularly dominant, but that's pretty speculative. The only dangerous galactic influence in our neighbourhood would be a nearby supernova, but none of the supernova candidates are close enough (now or in the immediate future) to be a concern (the closest, Betelgeuse, is about 1500 light years away, which is a safe distance).

Answer 2

You may be confusing the solar system with the Milky Way galaxy. The habitable zone in our solar system is the distance from the Sun where it is not too hot and not too cold. Needles to say, Earth is in that zone, Mars and Venus are possibly right at the edge of it, and all other planets are outside the habitable zone of our solar system. By the way, our solar system has no name, it is just "The Solar System".

I have never heard of anything like a habitable zone for the Milky Way galaxy, but I do know that a lot pf people confuse the galaxy with the solar system, asking things like how many planets are in our galaxy, and have we sent any space craft out of our own galaxy.

Answer 3

There is a galactic habitable zone, but the Sun is never going to move out of it. It's a donut-shaped region, so teh Sun stays in it all the time while it orbits the center of our galaxy.

The center of our galaxy is not habitable because the stars are too close together there, so the danger is too high of collisions, nearby supernovae, and other things. The edge of our galaxy is not habitable because there aren't enough heavy elements to support rocky planets and life as we know it.

Here's more info on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Habitable_Zone

Answer 4

All I have to say about this is,, you & I will not be here,, also. our Sun will go SuperNova way before then...

Ps, thats in BILLIONS of years... dont hold your breath ;)

Also.. lets say that if was to happen,, all would go cold and freez.

Cheers.