• Question: How long do think it will be until the sun ecplodes?

    Asked by MGulaid to Shona, Philip, Luke, Catherine, Angeline on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Philip Moriarty

      Philip Moriarty answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      The Sun’s core will run out of hydrogen in about six billion years. It’ll first become a red giant before shedding most of its mass to become a white dwarf.

    • Photo: Angeline Burrell

      Angeline Burrell answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      What Philip said. Of course none of those events are really explosions. White dwarfs will occasionally nova, and give off small explosions, under the right conditions (I don’t remember what they are, maybe Catherine does?). A real big explosion, a supernova, would require that the sun (as a white dwarf) gain mass from somewhere. That would be pretty hard to do, since the sun isn’t part of a multi-star system.

    • Photo: Shona Whittam

      Shona Whittam answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      Yes 6 billion years so no need for us to worry about it.

Comments