• Question: will the world ever end

    Asked by KUNG FU TIGER to Jake, James, Pete, Senga, Simonne on 10 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Jake Langham

      Jake Langham answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      Yep! But not for a while yet. Our Sun is about halfway through its life. In about 5 billion years (can you wait that long?) it will not have enough fuel to stay the way it is and will expand into a colder but much bigger type of star called a ‘red giant’. It will grow so big that it will swallow Mercury and Venus. Our Earth will be so close to the surface of the Sun in its red giant state that it will be too hot to live on. And eventually we think that the Earth will get swallowed up too! But… in 5 billion years hopefully we will have enough time to work out what to do about that. Maybe we can find a new planet to live on?

    • Photo: Simonne Weeks

      Simonne Weeks answered on 11 Nov 2017:

      great question.

    • Photo: Senga Robertson

      Senga Robertson answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Hi Kung Fu Tiger

      Scientists think that when the sun starts to die it will expand out and swallow up Earth before it collapses in on itself and dies (although Jake can probably explain this far better than me). The good news is though that they think the sun is still going to be around for another 5 billion years so it’s nothing we need to worry about.

      It’s funny actually, so we think our solar system is about 5 million years old (so the sun is right in the middle of its life), if you think about how much earth has evolved over just millions of years (dinosaurs started to rule the earth about 230 million years ago) it makes me wonder how different life will be on Earth in 5 billion years. I’m pretty sure that since we can already visit the moon and explore part of our solar system we will have found a new planet to live on before the sun dies. 🙂

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