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Last Post 10/22/2019 7:01 AM by  Terry Kucera
the sun
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10/21/2019 6:38 AM
    why do some stars die quicker than others? when will our star die, and what will become of the planets?

    thank you

    Mitzi Adams



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    10/22/2019 6:51 AM
    Stars with the most mass burn through it much more quickly than those with low mass. Our Sun is more-or-less a middle weight, and will last another approximately 4.5 billion years. Earth might be swallowed by the red giant that the Sun will become, but even if the Sun does not expand all the way to Earth, life will be impossible at that time on our planet. The reset of the planets in the solar system, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will continue in their orbits as they've always done, but they will get cooler and cooler as the Sun gets cooler and cooler.

    Terry Kucera



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    10/22/2019 7:01 AM
    Hi,
    The more massive the star, the faster the material in the core is used up to power the star. So, the larger, hotter stars have shorter lives than the smaller, cooler stars. Here I am talking about their lives as "normal" stars like the Sun, converting hydrogen in their centers so that it becomes helium and energy. The stars will last a lot longer in forms like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.

    We expect the Sun to last roughly another 5 billion years. Eventually it will run out of hydrogen in its core and start to go through a series of expansions and contractions as it starts to burn heavier elements. Eventually we expect the outer layers to expand out into space leaving a white dwarf star. This whole process would be pretty tough on the planets. Close ones would get swallowed up as the Sun expands to become a red giant. Other ones that are not quite close enough to be swallowed up would alternately be baked and frozen.

    I should point out, though, that 5 billion years is a long _time_, so this is very far away.

    A bit more about this is here:
    https://www.nasa.gov/audi...r_evol_feat_912.html
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