How Long Will It Take For The Sun To Destroy The Earth?

Question

How Many Years And Solutions

Answer 1

Earth will die an agonizing, slow death at the Sun's hands over hundreds of millions of years. In fact, the beginning of the end is at most 500 million years from now. That is because as the Sun fuses hydrogen into the helium, the core contracts and heats up. Helium nuclei takes up less space than hydrogen. The increased temperature, pressure and density of the core speeds up fusion of the remaining hydrogen. By the time the hydrogen in the Sun's core runs out some 5 billion years from now, life will probably be extinguished or on it's last legs as the Sun bombards the Earth with three times more energy per sqaure meter than it does now. The oceans will probably have boiled away long before and the Earth would be a hellish inferno like Venus. Then the pace accelerates as the Sun quickly expands into a red giant, which will heat the Earth up to a surface temperature in excess of 1,500 degrees and evaporate away the atmosphere into space by 6 billion A.D. Then helium fusion begins, and the Sun's core expands after collapsing steadily and driving up it's luminosity to at least 1,000 times greater than it is now. The outer envelope shrinks and the Sun fuses helium in it's core and hydrogen in a shell around it. Then the helium runs out and the Sun expands again into a red giant, but it cannot get hot and dense enough to fuse carbon and oxygen in it's core. By 7 billion years from now, the Sun will lose it's outer envelope, form a planetary nebula and dwindle into a white dwarf. It's not clear if the Earth will spiral into the Sun or merely move outwards as it loses mass and becomes a white dwarf, but either way Earth would have have long since died of incineration at the Sun's hands. As for solutions, if we're still around when the planet starts to roast, we'll either have to find a way to protect the planet or relocate to another star system with a younger, more stable star and a planet we can colonize.

Answer 2

In 5 billion years, give or take, the Sun expands into a Red Giant, nearly to the orbit of the Earth. The Earth raises a tide on the Sun, which gravitationally slows the Earth, and the Earth spirals to incineration in the Sun. Later, the Sun shrinks to about the size of the Earth as a white dwarf, where it shines due to heat that comes from gravitational collapse for a very, very long time. But we can save the Earth. The physics is well understood. We take a big asteroid and put it into a figure 8 orbit between Earth and Jupiter. We steal orbital energy from Jupiter and give it to the Earth. Calculations suggest that we have plenty of time, as long as we start in the next million years or so. Then, after the Sun shrinks, we can move the Earth down to a nice comfy warm orbit, using much the same technique. So the Earth will be saved, unless our descendants are mind bogglingly stupid. Failure here would indeed be paradise lost.

Answer 3

"...How Long Will It Take For The Sun To Destroy The Earth?..."

Our sun will be in its red-giant stage in about 4-billion years. At that time it will come very near to completely consuming Earth. At the very least it will totally wipe out all forms of life here, a process that may begin as soon as 1- to 2-billion years from now.

"...Solutions..."

We can't stop the sun from destroying Earth, so we'd better have found a new home somewhere else in the galaxy by then.

Answer 4

That all depends on many different things. If you mean how long will it take for the Sun to supernova, then we are talking billions of years.

But say the Earth were to be hit by a large asteroid or some other cosmic disaster, this might compromise our orbit around the Sun and push us into a collision course with the Sun or another Planet.
Theoriclly we could get into a degraded orbit. But then if the Earth were stuck that hard, life most likely would not survive long.
If you mean the Greenhouse effect, then human's are in control of their own destiny. It up to us to change our destructive habits.

Answer 5

500 million years on- the sun's heting will kill of more complex life, causing greater and grater simplicity.
In about 1 billion years it will be too hot for life- so hot that the oceans will evaporate.
4.5 billion years- the sun becomes a red giant. It may swallow the Earth. We don't yet know for sure.
6.5 billion years. The sun dies. If earth is still around, it will freeze.

From 500 million years on our only hope will be to move to mars or somewhere further out. As the heat rises (the sun heats up constantly as it gets older due t fusion processes) we will have to move further and further out. When it freezes, oru only chance would be to move to another solar system.

One other theory is to use gravity form comets to move the Earth. This will help us for the first 5 billion years. Even the we'd still have to move out.

Eventually all stars will die out in the universe. Then we are totally hosed unless we can cheat it using Dyson's theories or get into another universe.

Answer 6

The sun will expand to red giant phase in about 6.5 billion years. This will evaporate all water and end all life on Earth.
The Earth itself will remain for another .7 billion years when the sun expands a second time to an asymptotic red giant. At that time it will have lost about .33 solar masses, the planets will have spiralled outward, and the sun will be the size of Earth's orbit today (the Earth will also have moved outward to about 1.6 AU).
Solutions:
- we find a way to stop the sun from expanding
- we find a way to live on a roasted waterless world
- we find a way to go live somewhere else

Answer 7

in 5 billion years the sun will destroy is self and the earth and the two other plantes that is close to the sun.in 5 billions years the sun will enter the red giant phase and destroy the earth but it is a possibly that earth will move away close enough that it wouldnt be destroyed but the oceans on earth will be dryed up by the intesne heat of the red giant.

Answer 8

When it drops out of "main sequence" fusion, it will grow to a "red giant" in a matter of months. The Earth will lose its atmosphere and water and bake to a cinder, if it doesn't get enveloped by the swelling Sun.

All the other planets will be affected by the growth of the Sun. Mars may or may not be habitable. The gas giants will lose their gasses and destabilize. There goes the neighborhood.

We move on to another star, another solar system.

Answer 9

The sun is 4.5 billion years and we have another 4 billion before it swallows us up. It will no nova after that.

Answer 10

You should check out Wikipedia.com. They have a great database for questions of this sort. I use it daily! Another great source for general up-to-date space info is space.com. I also check out this site daily.