Predicting the future is a speculative commercial enterprise in skill , but if we are look at the farsighted - term evolution of theSolar System , astronomers and planetary scientists have a reasonable idea of how that will pan out . It ’s not like we know what will happen at 10:04 premier on November 12 in the class 88,000,001,955 . But statistically , we can expect sure events to take place .
OurSunis a GB - type lead currently in the so - call main sequence . This means that it is commingle hydrogen in its core turn it into atomic number 2 . It is presently middle - of age , having been shine for about 5 billion years . What happens next for the Sun has been seen in many other mavin .
Hotter, Bigger, And Redder
Over the next 5 billion years , the Sun will get hotter . The process will be slow , but will certainly feign the Solar System . The Earth will be affected inso many dissimilar ways . An step-up in temperature will conduce to an increase in weathering of silicate , which willslow down the carbon copy bicycle . This will affect many , but not all , plants , but those continue wo n’t stay there for tenacious . finally , there will be no more plants and the nutrient chemical chain will collapse . That could happen in about 600 million years .
The microbial lifeforms pull through on any such planet might not have an enjoyable time either . Within a billion years , the Sun will have brightened by 10 percent , make a runaway greenhouse gist leading to the evaporation of all oceans . After that , in the intervening billions of years , plate tectonics and the whole carbon paper cycle will block , and the Earth will be a raw Venus . A world raging enough to melt wind . And so far , the Sun has only been getting brighter . shortly , it will be getting big too .
As the Sun bleed out of atomic number 1 to fuse at its core it wo n’t be in balance any longer . The energy eject by nuclear fusion balance out the weighting of the Sun . Without fusion , the core will start to contract , bringing new atomic number 1 to a shell - work region with temperatures and press high enough to fuse it . This operation has a dramatic effect on stars like the Sun . Their outer layer expands dramatically . They have become a Red Giant . When it ’s the Sun ’s turn for this , it will be all-encompassing enough to expand into the orbit of Mercury and Venus , get hold of near to Earth .
Mercury Might Be Gone Before Then
Now , a caveat . There is a small probability that the smallest satellite might start a cosmic plot of pool before the Sun decides to eat it . In the last several billion long time , the eight canonic major planet and the thousands of minor soundbox in the Solar System have orbit the Sun without too much excitement . But there is a hazard that all of this might exchange in the next 5 billion year . And at the center of this orbital drama , there ’s Mercury . There is a1 percent chancethat the lilliputian planet might be pulled out of its current orbit before the Red Giant phase . This leads to a whole raiment of scenarios , from a collision with Venus and even Earth , to being launch into the Sun , or even shake off out of the organisation wholly .
There is no precise root to such a complex gravitational problem , but dissimilar approaches to model future scenario , with different presumptuousness about the major and venial players that will have a role , have shown time and time again that the stability of the Solar System can not be taken for granted .
The End Of The Solar System
lose one planet may be regard as unfortunate ; lose eight looks like neglect . Earth and Mars likely will spiral into the Sun , while the rest of the planet will be crusade outwards . Red giant ’ tabu layers are so loosely held by the gravity of the virtuoso that they begin to brag off , forming a planetary nebula . The Sun will fall back mass and the gas giants will be on across-the-board and broad orbits , catch close to doubling their length to the Sun .
The Sun will eventually blow away all its layer let on its degenerate nitty-gritty , a Modern stellar physical object we call awhite dwarf . Having lost a Brobdingnagian chunk of its heap , the white dwarf Sun will not be capable to hold onto the remaining planets forever . A hotshot getting too close would be enough to disrupt at least three out of four of the giants , leaving maybe just Jupiter there . Simulations say that such an encounter will occur within 30 billion years , leadingto losing three satellite within 10 billion age .
The model shows that the last planet might stick around for quite a long time , but it will finally be pushed out through encounters with other champion . Simulations have offer up a wide of the mark kitchen range of timeframes , up to 100 billion years . That is much farsighted than the current age of the universe ( about 13.8 billion years ) .
Maybe in that far future , an foreign astronomer will spot a snowy midget lose its only distant major planet and wonder if life story had once benefited from the bushed virtuoso ’s light .
