Our Sun

[FarvLarion]

How old is our sun?  And what type of devistation would it create when it goes (Nova, SuperNova, or HyperNova, I don't know which!)?

[pixiedoxen]

Well obviously we the human race will cease to exsist!

[Tommy]

Our Sun is about 4.5 billion years old. There are several stages a star goes through before they cease to be called stars. Our Sun I believe is a G2 star, which registers rather low in comparison with other stars. It will therefore not expand and explode in supernova fashion, but expand into a red giant, but then cool and contract into a white dwarf, and finally as the light fades completely, it becomes a black dwarf.

For a basic understanding of our Sun, this link seems ok.  http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/education/basic/basic.html

[Homer]

Tommy's statement is the most widely accepted view. The human race(along with just about everything else) will surely parrish due to our atmosphere being burned off in the red giant stage, that's if the sun doesn't consume this planet completely.

Homer[glow=color,strength,width]

[odinsupreme]

Odin Speaks: I have read that the sun will swell up to mars, so Earth will vanish completely. But this will only happen in about 4.5 billion years, and then the human race will no longer excist.

Odin Supreme  8)

[Tommy]

Odin Supreme,

           Do you really believe that the human race will exist for a futher 4.5 billion years before we die out?

You think it will be our Sun that will finally destroy us?

I for one don't share your optimism. I think we will be lucky to survive the next few centuries let alone the a few eons from now. If we don't kill ourselves, I'm sure a natural or supernatural disaster will wipe us out.   :'(

On the other hand however, Humans may evolve to a more intelligent life form and by then, we may have a means of intergalactic transport and further our race "to infinity and beyond"... ;D

[Homer]

Odin,

Although nobody knows for sure, it is widely believed that our Sun, while expanding to the Red Giant stage, would expand approximately to Earths orbit. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more. As I previously stated, nobody knows for sure, but it is more commonly believed that Mars would not be consumed, and perhaps not Earth either. However, even if Earth doesn't get completely consumed, our atmosphere would be boiled off, thereby killing us all anyways.

Another theory is when a star enters the Red Giant phase, the rate at which it loses mass can accelerate. The mass of a star determines how far a planet orbits from it. Thus, as the Sun loses mass, the orbits of the other planets will expand. The orbit of Mars will almost certainly expand faster than the Sun does, thus Mars will probably not suffer the same fate as Mercury and Venus. It is currently an open question as to whether the Earth will survive or be consumed.

Just something to think about as we get drastically closer to that time in the future.

Homer[glow=color,strength,width][shadow=color,direction,width]

[odinsupreme]

Tommy,

I didn't meant that we will be killed by a giant sun, we will be extinct for a long time when that happends.

Homer,

There is one thing sure, all the water on earth will be boiled, then we get rains that are so hot that we all die.  

Odin Supreme  8)

[Clecko]

even if the orbit of earth expands with the sun's expansion to a red giant, it will end up uninhabitable when the sun shrinks to a white dwarf. But we most likely will have found the technology to survive off-planet by then.

[Jamie]

4.5 billion years sounds like a long time from now.  I think we will have either killed ourselves off already by then or like Clecko said we wont even be on earth anymore cause we can survive somewhere else.  Its even possible we might evolve into pure energy by then.  Who knows.  

Jamie

[Homer]

Clecko,

Even if the Earth doesn't get consumed by the Sun, it will be completely uninhabitable long before the White Dwarf stage, due to the atmosphere being boiled off in the Red Giant stage.

Homer[glow=color,strength,width]