• Question: will the sun ever explode like the other stars do

    Asked by squirt to Euan, Deborah, Maheen, Rob, Stu on 13 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Alice.13.
    • Photo: Deborah Prunty

      Deborah Prunty answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      The sun will burn out and explode, but not for millions of years yet. Don’t worry!

    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      All suns eventually die, some in a more spectacular way than others. Because of the size of our sun, we can actually make a pretty good guess at what it will do when it dies.

      First it will begin getting larger and larger and become a giant red dwarf star. Then, as it cools, the sun with shrink to become approximately the size of the earth and will become what we call a white dwarf star. The sun will then stay like this forever, as it cools, eventually becoming the same temperature as space.

      If our star was slightly bigger though, then instead of shrinking to a white dwarf, the giant red dwarf ends up collapsing and either causing a black hole, or exploding in a super nova!

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