Name: Donnie
Status: Student
Grade: 9-12
Location: WI
Country: United States
Date: June 2006
Question:
How is it known that the sun will eventually destroy the Earth?
Replies:
Donnie,
Other than being the closest star to our planet (by far!) our Sun is a very
typical star and you would barely be able to see it if it was 10 parsecs
away (a standard distance to measure absolute star brightness and is equal
to about a distance 32.6 lightyears). But we do study stars and the life
cycles of stars quite a bit. Based upon the mass and absolute brightness of
a star we can predict the most probable fate of each star. The H-R Diagram
(Hertzsprung-Russell) shows the fate of each of the stars based upon their
mass and was made by taking actual data from the sky. You can read more
about how this diagram works if you follow the link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_sequence
Based upon this information, we know that our Sun will eventually start
contracting after it burns all of the hydrogen in its core, then it will
send out a shockwave when the core collapses. This will do two things, it
will start helium fusion and it will expand the diameter of the sun out to
about where Mars is (or at least far enough to consume the Earth). This
knowledge is all based upon the mass and temperature of our Sun.
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