Our sun is old – very old if we count in people-years but it really is still middle aged in sun-years. Scientists believe it is around 4.5 billion years old. Its rate of aging is different from ours but a few billion years from now, it will die.
Considering that the sun is the primary source of the Earth’s energy used by living creatures, its death would have a major impact on us all. Of course, our generation won’t be alive by then but what could possibly happen to the humans still alive on our planet if the sun dies? Can humans really survive the sun’s death?
How the Sun Will Die
The sun creates heat and energy because of the chemical interactions within; converting hydrogen to helium in a nuclear reaction. According to scientists, when the reactions inside the sun’s core stop after the chemicals are used up, the sun will die.
Here’s one thing that will make you feel a little bit better: the sun’s dying process will not occur until some 5 billion years from now. But when this happens, the sun will grow into a giant red ball which could engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, and the Earth.
Afterwards, the red giant will become a planetary nebula which will drift towards space. The core of this nebula will become a white dwarf, much smaller than our current sun but without the nuclear reactions that provide us with heat.
If, somehow, we manage to survive the heat of the red giant, we could die in the cold with the white dwarf. Then, the sun would become a black dwarf by the time it loses all its heat.
But wait! There’s a possibility that we could survive the red giant phase, giving humanity a few billions of years more, according to AsapSCIENCE, anyway. Here’s their interesting theory:
Source : Enchanted Learning
