The sun will explode after consuming the Earth: when?

All stars follow a life cycle during which They are born, grow old and die. The latter usually occurs as a result of a big explosion known as supernova. Therefore, it is quite expected that the day will come when our sun will explode. After all, it is still a star that follows a life cycle like all the others. Now, when exactly will this happen and how will it affect our planet?

Many researchers have tried to give an approximate answer. The latest research in this regard was published in April last year by hand scientists from NASA and the University of Warwick. According to their findings, the Sun will explode in a few 6 billion years. By that time, the previous expansion of the star would have already destroyed our planet, as well as some other planets in the solar system.

While this all seems like bad news, it’s actually good. As we already logically guessed, the Sun will explode inside several billion years. By then, we humans will most likely be the ones who destroy the Earth. There shouldn’t be any problems in this regard.

This is the life cycle of a star

Before studying the date of the explosion of the Sun, it is important to know in more or less general terms the date of the explosion of the Sun. life cycle of a star.

Birth occurs when particles of dust and gas from nebulae They are attracted to each other by gravity until they form a large mass known as protostar. Gravity continues to contribute, causing this mass to contract and its center to heat up, greatly increasing its density and pressure. As a result, the atoms that make up matter move very quickly and collide with each other again and again, causing nuclear fusion reaction which we should not confuse with nuclear fission used in the atomic bomb or in nuclear power plants.

Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which keeps the star burning. Usually such a collision occurs between hydrogen nucleiwhich merge to form heliuma little heavier. Therefore, we can consider hydrogen to be the fuel of a star. Once this process begins, the star will have many years ahead of it, during which it will go through several phases, depending on its size.

When the fuel at the center of a star runs out, it contracts again, raising its temperature. Thanks to this, a new collision of atoms can begin, but in a new layer that still contains fuel. This process causes the star to increase in volume and change color. The larger it is, the more the outer layers cool and emit visible light of a certain color. For example, the coldest stars are red, then yellow, and finally the hottest are blue and greenish.

The sun is now This is the yellow giant. As its fuel runs out, it will expand, increasing its gravity and attracting objects that become increasingly distant. Therefore, it is expected that shortly before its explosion it will engulf the Earth. This is something that has actually been known for a long time, since it was calculated how many years of fuel it had left. But scientists from the University of Warwick have added data to the story.

The sun will explode, but the Earth will not exist.

The Sun is expected to engulf the Earth when it enters the red giant phase. After that, all he has to do to die is become a white dwarf. This is the last phase in which a star that has completely used up its fuel explodes as a supernova. If it is very massive, then instead of a supernova it will form black hole; but, be that as it may, this is the end of the star.

Therefore, to find out the period in which the Sun will explode, these scientists analyzed the brightness of three white dwarfs with characteristics similar to those of the Sun over a period of 17 years. Watching how brightness increased and decreasedScientists were able to determine when objects passed in front of them and what type they were. This can be extrapolated to the Sun to predict evolution around it.

The movement of objects around white dwarfs turned out to be very chaotic. Therefore, the disappearance of other planets and satellites from the solar system is expected to be very abrupt, just before the moment when the Sun explodes. But, as we have already seen, the Earth will not exist by then. Too close to survive that long.