• Question: does the sun get bigger everyday and if it does will it one day explode

    Asked by anon-207519 to Silvia, Scott, Oliver, Natalie, Michelle, Lowri on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Natalie Lamb

      Natalie Lamb answered on 13 Mar 2019:


      Over time the sun is expanding and getting brighter because the hydrogen it burns is slowly decreasing. When the hydrogen does run out (in another 5 billion years or so) chemical reactions will continue with helium in its core making the sun become what is called a Red Giant (which is massive and large enough to envelop the Earth). When the helium runs out, it will become a White Dwarf, a very small Earth-sized star and that’s it. So the sun will never explode because it isn’t big enough (it is too small to ignite anything past the helium in its core).
      Other bigger stars can explode (a supernova explosion) because the burning continues until it makes iron which makes its core unstable.

    • Photo: Scott Graham

      Scott Graham answered on 14 Mar 2019:


      I’m not sure at which rate the sun gets bigger but it is believed that one day when the sun ‘dies’ it will enlarge so much that it will actually engulf earth and other planets. although don’t worry this wont happen for millions of years yet

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