What will happen to Earth when the sun runs out of fuel?

Question

And do you think this will mean the end of life on Earth?

Answer 1

HAHAHA. Had to laugh at "lizzie's" answer.

When the Sun runs out of fuel to burn, it will die out. Most likely this won;t happen for several billion more years. However, the Sun is our life source. It provides food, heat, light, and is responsible for most natural processes necessary to sustain life.

If the Sun dies before the human race leaves the planet, we will all die. Any life on Earth would be cast into darkness and would die in a matter of days if not sooner. In all likelyhood the Earth will die before the Sun does. However, you don't really have to worry about that.

The most likely thing that will happen, however, is that the Sun will expand to many times its current size. It will engulf much of the inner solar system.

And to the "lizzie" above me... geez, you can't be serious.

Answer 2

We really don't need to worry about the sun running out of fuel because the Earth will not live to see that stage.

In the standard life-cycle of a star, as it runs out of fuel, it expands and cools to form a red giant. When the Sun makes it to this stage, in about 5 billion years, it will fill the entire solar system between where it is now and Earth's orbit, burning up the planet.

Answer 3

According to one source I found the Sun appears to have been active for 4.6 billion years and has enough fuel to go on for another five billion years or so. You can read more about the Sun by following the link below for what will happen to the Sun, when it runs out of fuel; it's quite interesting.

However, I don't know whether there will be any people left on Earth when it happen. I think, we will have over populated our planet and exhausted its natural resources to a point where we can no longer survive, or we will have finally managed to kill each other off through our fighting or disease.

I'm only saying that because we gone through several civilizations throughout the ages and have had countless wars and instead of learning from our mistakes and not having any more wars, we have gone the opposite direction and developed more efficient ways to kill each other.

Anyway, it sounds like the Sun will collapse into a smaller version of itself and burn at a higher intensity (white), before it goes out and turns into a star like our planet. If that happens, it would drastically raise the temperature of our planet and burn everything up on it, then everything would drop hundreds of degrees below zero after the Sun goes out and stops radiating any heat.

Answer 4

This process is named the death of the Sun. And will happend that the sun will collapse under its own gravity and this will expand his atmosphere. The Earth in this process will be engulfed or is going to be vaporised completely.

But don't worry so much, many many many years before happend something like that, the life in the earth will disappear. Because the sun will have less fuel to burn, and without fuel, everything that we call life here will disappear gradually.

Answer 5

The cataclysmic event that will precede this is the sun going to red giant phase. When this happens Mercury and Venus will get swallowed up. As for Earth, the planet itself may survive but the life forms will not - it will be too hot.

Answer 6

Size of the Sun will expand at a tremendous rate and stop somewhere between Earth and Mars. Mercury, Venus, and Earth will all be destroyed.

Answer 7

Yup. First thing would be the sun increasing in size to about the point of jupiter. Then it would contract on itself until a dwarf star of some sort. Thats not for like 10 billion years so no worries

Answer 8

when the earth runs out of nitrogen, it will take up to 2 billion years for it to stop shining and giving off light. but after that, it probably will mean the end of life on earth.

Answer 9

When God made the sun it was good and what God does is good . The sun is hot and gives off light and is not ran by fuel but light to shine in the day and moon by night. Gen1;3 God said, Let there be light and there was light.

Answer 10

IF that did happen, we would know about it within 8 minutes. After that the earth would begin to cool down and within a period of a few days, it would not support life as we know it.