Sun how long will it last

Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas, this will drive the temperatures even hotter. As temperatures rise, complex lifeforms will find life on Earth less hospitable. It will seem as if evolution is running in reverse, as plants and animals die off, leaving the invertebrates and eventually just microbial life. Still, there are reserves of water deep underground which will continue to protect microbial life for billions of years. Even a few hundred million years is an incomprehensible amount of time compared to the age of our civilization.

As the Sun heats up, making Earth inhospitable, it heats up the rest of the Solar System too. Near-earth asteroid might be a lost fragment of the moon 49 minutes ago. Reading Paper on Earth Occultation Technique 12 hours ago. Level of details in prime focus vs eyepiece images 17 hours ago. Maximum mass of a neutron star Nov 09, Observational bias?

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Nov 10, New method to detect Tatooine-like planets validated 22 hours ago. Load comments Let us know if there is a problem with our content. Your message to the editors. Your email only if you want to be contacted back. Entire planets will be consumed.

And long-icy worlds will finally enjoy their day in the sun. Our star is powered by nuclear fusion, and it turns hydrogen into helium in a process that converts mass into energy. Once the fuel supply is gone, the sun will start growing dramatically. Its outer layers will expand until they engulf much of the solar system, as it becomes what astronomers call a red giant.

And what will happen to the planets once the sun enters the red giant phase? But a few things seem likely. Any humans left around might find refuge on Pluto and other distant dwarf planets out in the Kuiper Belt, a region past Neptune packed with icy space rocks. As our sun expands, these worlds will suddenly find themselves with the conditions necessary for the evolution of life. Throughout solar system history, the innermost planet has been baked by the sun.

But even today, Mercury still clings to some icy patches. Then, it too will be consumed by the sun. While the sun may have 5 billion years left before it runs out of fuel, life on Earth will likely be wiped out long before that happens. The envelope can be as much as half the star's mass. This reveals the star's core, which by this point in the star's life is running out of fuel, eventually turning off and before finally dying," said astronomer Albert Zijlstra, of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, in a statement.

Astronomers estimate that the sun has about 7 billion to 8 billion years left before it sputters out and dies. Humanity may be long gone by then, or perhaps we'll have already colonized another planet. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more!

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