When's the sun gonna run out?

Question

Never mind all this global warming. When will the sun expire?

Woo Hoo! 100 answers! My best question yet, stay tuned.

Answer 1

The Sun will die out, when "going to" is spelt "gonna".

But in around 2 - 4 billion years, when the Sun begins its giant phase and the outer gaseous layers of the sun begin to engulf Venus, possibly the Earth and more... thats the day to start worrying about some serious Global Warming.

If we have moved by then, and Im sure Peter Allen will be selling a nice end terrace on Mars by then... then you will be able to enjoy around 100 millions years or so of Red Giant sun without a care in the world.

Wil Hopcyn

Answer 2

The Sun's current age, determined using computer models of stellar evolution and nucleocosmochronology, is thought to be about 4.57 billion years.

The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence evolution, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. Each second, more than 4 million tonnes of matter are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation; at this rate, the sun will have so far converted around 100 earth-masses of matter into energy. The Sun will spend a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main sequence star.

The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova. Instead, in 4-5 billion years, it will enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin when the core temperature reaches around 100 MK, and will produce carbon and oxygen. While it is likely that the expansion of the outer layers of the Sun will reach the current position of Earth's orbit, recent research suggests that mass lost from the Sun earlier in its red giant phase will cause the Earth's orbit to move further out, preventing it from being engulfed. However, Earth's water will be boiled away and most of its atmosphere will escape into space.

Following the red giant phase, intense thermal pulsations will cause the Sun to throw off its outer layers, forming a planetary nebula. The only object that will remain after the outer layers are ejected is the extremely hot stellar core, which will slowly cool and fade as a white dwarf over many billions of years.

Answer 3

Absolutely yonks from now!

By the time the sun wears itself out and has absorbed most of the planets in our solar system, including the Earth, many many millions of years will have gone by. Humans will have become extinct, Cockroaches will roam the Earth as the oldest living creatures along with some form of sharks or whales and perhaps, on some distant planet in a similar solar system to ours, the event will turn up on their version of the Discovery Channel. That astronomer may or may not be distantly related to you. Depends if we get our act together and get a ship off to space in the near future...

P.S. Thanks to your question I now know that the Moon is actually running away from us at about 1.5 inches every year! No worries though, the last visible total lunar eclipse will be 620 million years from now.

We'll actually stop seeing total lunar eclipses way before the sun runs out. Learn something every day!

http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityLast.html

Answer 4

Our sun will die in about five billion years; at least that is what we think based on our current theories. We presently think that stars fuse hydrogen into helium in their cores. This process releases the energy that ultimately is emitted as electromagnetic radiation from the surface of the star. The lifetime of a star is then determined by the amount of hydrogen that it has when born. Thus the lifetime of a star is determined by its mass. A star with the mass of our sun is thought to live a total of ten billion years. Other evidence persuades us that the sun has been shining for five billion years and will begin its death process in another five billion years.

Answer 5

The sun is a yellow star in what astronomers call the Main Sequence. If it's left to its own devices it'll expand into a Red Giant and then blow itself apart in about 5,000,000,000 years.

Unfortunatley, I suspect that the government will give in to some trendy "green lobby" and tax it out of existence before then because it contributes to global warming.

Answer 6

Not sure of the date, AD something anyway.

Just don't be here when the Sun finally does expire because it will go Supernova first [wham] and I mean the real big bang. It will explode like hells own nuke, swallowing up all the planets. After a while it will cool down, billions of years later maybe, and become a Red Dwarf then who knows, maybe a Black Hole sucking every-ones space ships down into its monster gravity depths.

Answer 7

If I recall correctly, it is estimated that the planet began about 4.6 billion years ago. The type of star that our sun happens to be live for about 10 billion years. So that leaves us 5.4 billion years to go before we need to move to a new solar system.

...That is, if global warming doesn't do us in first.

Answer 8

Yes, after millions of years ...and pls gimme a break! its nothing to do with the pollution on earth!( as some answerers have said)

The sun is burning its own mass. Scientists have found that the sun is reducing by a couple of metres every day.

But dont worry, it won't run out in our lifetime. Maybe when it has completely burned itself, humans would not have been existing, they may have got extinct by that time(if we consider the rate at which pollution is increasing and effecting humans)

Answer 9

Billions of years later. Its outer layer will eventually sheds off leaving its core and it will turn into a white dwarf and then black dwarf. If the white dwarf draws materials from another star, this will ignite thermonuclear reactions, blowing up the whole sun, which is called the Type 1a supernova

Answer 10

It's a very complicated matter. Just when you have about a three week vacation scheduled for a trip to Spain on the beach and fully paid for, it'll run out the day you arrive at your seaside resort with ocean view.