The Sun is currently about 4.6 billion years old, measured by the ages of other bodies in the Solar System that formed around the same time. Based on observations of other stars, astronomers estimate that the Sun will die in about 10 billion years.
Of course there is a process, can not suddenly die. In about 5 billion years, the Sun will turn into a red giant first. The core of the star will shrink, but the outer layer will expand into the orbit of Mars so that it engulfs Planet Earth -- that is if Earth is still around.
In fact, mankind roughly only has about 1 billion years left. That's because the Sun experiences an increase in brightness of about 10% every billion years. This increase in brightness will end life on Earth. The oceans would evaporate, and their surface would become too hot to form water.
Furthermore, a 2018 year using computer modeling discovered the ultimate fate of the Sun. Like 90% of other stars, our Sun will most likely shrink from a red giant to a white dwarf and then end up as a nebula.
"When a star dies, it ejects a mass of gas and dust, known as its envelope, into space. The envelope can be up to half the mass of the star," explains astrophysicist Albert Zijlstra of the University of Manchester in England, one of the authors of the paper.
When the Sun runs out of core material, this makes the ejected envelope shine brightly for about 10,000 years. This is what makes the nebula visible. Some are so bright that they can be seen from great distances and measure tens of meters.
Nebulae are relatively common throughout the universe and many are observable. Famous examples include the Helix Nebula and the Bubble Nebula. However, 2018 modeling shows that the Sun is around the lower limit of mass for a star that can produce a clearly visible nebula. In other words, when it dies, our Sun will not produce a nebula that shines as brightly as other nebulae.
"This is a great result. Not only do we now have a way to measure the presence of stars several billion years old in distant galaxies, which is a very difficult range to measure, we have even discovered what will happen to the Sun when it does. dead," he said. This was reported by Science Alert, Monday (13/9/2021).
