• Question: I WANT TO KNOW HOW LONG UNTILL THE SUN WILL EXPLODE!?

    Asked by anon-197552 to Sonal, Rosanna, Matthew, Marleen, Dan on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Matthew Selwood

      Matthew Selwood answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      This really isn’t my area, but after a bit of research it seems that the sun will begin to start “exploding procedure” in about 9 billion years? That said, apparently conditions for life will only be here for another 1 – 1.5 billion years.

      Rosanna will know far more than I do though, as it is her area!

      Sauce: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/39098/how-long-until-the-sun-cannot-sustain-human-life-on-earth

    • Photo: Rosanna Tilbrook

      Rosanna Tilbrook answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      The Sun won’t technically explode- only more massive stars will do this and end their lives in a supernova. Instead, our Sun will expand into a red giant in about 4 billion years, where it will either swallow up the Earth, or vaporise it 🙁 After that, it’ll throw off its outer layers in a planetary nebulae (nothing to do with planets, but the pictures are very pretty- look them up!), which will have the final remnant of the Sun at its centre- a very small, very dense type of star called a white dwarf. This will slowly fade over billions and billions of years.

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