Sun, as a star that is a source of energy for Earth, is called continuously losing mass or running out of energy. Even though it was predicted for a long time, is this a sign of the apocalypse in Earth?
Quoted from Live Sciencethe nuclear fusion reaction that drives the Sun converts mass into energy according to Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc^2 .
Since the Sun is constantly producing energy, it is also constantly losing mass. Experts estimate this process will take another 5 billion years until it completely runs out of ‘gasoline’.
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For the rest of the Sun’s lifetime, models of how stars evolve over time predict the Sun will lose about 0.1 percent of its total mass before it begins to die.
Brian DiGiorgio, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says when those 5 billion years are up, the Sun will become a red giant.
That means the Sun will get bigger and cooler at the same time. When that happened, the Sun we know today was gone.
Collect Space, the sun will turn into a red giant that is 2,000 times brighter than it is now. It will enter that phase after burning most of the hydrogen in its core.
According to NASA, the Sun will stop generating heat through nuclear fusion about 5 billion years from now, and its core will become unstable and shrink.
If the Sun exploded, all human and plant life on Earth would be destroyed. The death of our solar system will no doubt result from the explosion of the Sun.
Quoted from Science Times, scientists do not believe the explosion will occur because the Sun is so small compared to other stars in the galaxy. However, astronomers believe giant supernovae will be extremely rare. The sun is expected to end at a slower and gradual pace.
According to experts, the Sun at the end of time will cool and grow bigger, then turn into a red monster.
Mitigation on Earth
DiGiorgio admits so far there is no consensus among experts on how much the sun will swell during the red giant phase. According to him, there are estimates that indicate the sun will grow large enough to swallow the Earth and cause the planet to spirally rotate and be swallowed.
However, he said, there is also the possibility that the expansion of the Sun’s size does not reach Earth. That is, the Earth can still survive and continue to orbit. The problem is, can the Earth survive without the energy of the Sun?
“Even if Earth survives, there’s no way humans can survive it,” DiGiorgio said.
“Heat and radiation from the sun that penetrates will not only boil the oceans and atmosphere, but may also boil the Earth itself,” he continued.
DiGiorgio also offers two solutions. First, it slowly moves Earth’s orbit beyond the orbit of Saturn. The goal is to keep it warm enough to be livable as it is today.
“However, this is very impractical,” he said.
The second solution, continued DiGiorgio, “leave Earth and look for another planet or solar system to live in.”
(can/lth)
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