I was wondering......It's interesting.
2006-12-22 06:19:34 · 9 answers · asked by goalie2qwk4u 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Our Sun is a yellow, G2 V main sequence dwarf.
Yellow dwarfs "live" to about 10 billion years and our sun has been around for some 5 billion years now. In another five (or so) it will have used up most of its hydrogen fuel and will become a red giant for another tens or hundreds of million years after which it will become a white dwarf.
But don't worry about the Sun's demise as a catastrophe to humankind... Though as a red giant its circumference will be about that of the earth's orbit (and would therefore engulf our planet), we will face a bigger threat long before that time... with the moon. It is slowly pulling away from the earth and this will result in destructive consequences for us in probably only a few billion years.
2006-12-22 06:59:50 · answer #1 · answered by cavedonkey 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are all right - the Sun is middle aged and has about 5 billion years left.
NB. ritamar32 is 100% wrong.
1) Science does NOT 'guess' - Science is a cycle of observation / theory / prediction / experiment that delivers more and more accurate answers as each observation & experiment leads to better theories and each prediction is confirmed (or proves the theory wrong).
Life time of the Sun = 9.7 billion years (+/- .1 billion), is thus the most accuracte answer provided by Science today.
2) If you did 'guess' something that would NOT mean that there is 'no answer' only that the guess might be wrong (in the UK millions try to 'guess' the winning Lorttery numbers every week - and guess what ? every week there IS an answer and quite often some-one has guessed EXACTLY RIGHT !)
2006-12-22 07:08:52 · answer #2 · answered by Steve B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sun has around 5 billion years worth of hydrogen in it. The sun fuses the hydrogen atoms into helium. It takes a temperature of about 15 million degrees to do that! But then it runs out of hydrogen atoms to fuse and the sun "goes out" for a little bit as it begins to collapse. The energy created by the collapse causes the sun to start back up again temporarily. It reaches it's maximum output of heat, which is higher than 15 million, but it is still not enough. I think that is the red giant stage. Then, it begins to collapse again and it makes more energy... I'm not sure what happens after that, but it might become a neutron star, I'm not sure... Anyway, I hope that helped.
2006-12-22 09:09:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Suns life will be 8
billion years,currently
4 billion years thus far.
2006-12-22 07:58:28 · answer #4 · answered by Halo Zero 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sun is about 5 billion years old and will last approximately another 5 billion years.
2006-12-22 06:52:12 · answer #5 · answered by Land Warrior 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
5 billion years give or take a few you will not be here so dont worry.Each star has fuel which runs out some quick so very long depend alot on size color etc
2006-12-22 06:26:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The life expectancy is not known ,and science can only guess,so there is no answer.
2006-12-22 06:51:49 · answer #7 · answered by ritamar32 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About 10,000,000,000 (10 billion) years. And it has used up about half that so far, so it has about another 5,000,000,000 years to live.
2006-12-22 06:29:55 · answer #8 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
tgyumc
2006-12-22 06:24:11 · answer #9 · answered by <>< 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋