Category: James Webb
Topic: Will the sun die one day? If it happens, what could happen to life on Earth?
Title: Our insignificant dying star
Back to the future, Interstellar, and The Terminator are movies that have one thing in common. They talk about time travel, and according to NASA the telescope James Webb is similar to a time machine. As it has shown inedite pictures of the universe’s formation, planets in agony, how galaxies collide, and dying stars.
We live somewhere within the once new-observable universe, which itself has the Virgo Supercluster. Within it we can find the local group, a group of galaxies where we can find the Milky Way; a galaxie where the Solar System can be found. This system has 8 planets: Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter then an asteroid belt followed by Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury. All moving around a dying star, the Sun.
Then there’s you, within a small portion of Earth 's surface, asking yourself “What would happen if the Sun stopped shining or simply died?” Or realistically you aren’t and in fact, you are thinking “I’m hungry and want to sleep. How long will this take?”
The Milky Way is about 100,000 light years in diameter and contains 100-400 billion stars. In this galaxy, about 7 stars are born each year. In fact, most of the stars that will ever exist in the universe have already been born. Including our sun.
The Sun, the main star in the Solar System, was formed 4.6 billion years ago, and is composed of dust and gas, especially hydrogen. It gives light to our days and allows us to survive in that small part of the pocket of the universe, we call the Solar System.
Our star was formed as a result of a spinning cloud of gas and dust, which began to collapse. The gravity created pressure that pulled the material to the center. The sun’s center is made out of hydrogen, which can fuse with another atom to create helium.
The term thermonuclear fusion seems foreign and strange, however it is what allows the sun to produce energy . As the sun’s light comes from the constant collapse of the protons of hydrogen atoms to create helium.
When the sun runs out of hydrogen, it would eventually lead to the death of the star as this would represent a lack of energy production, starting with a beautiful yet destructive planetary nebula.
“Billions of years from now, as our Sun approaches the end of its life and helium nuclei begin to fuse in its core, it will bloat dramatically and turn into what's known as a red giant star. After swallowing Mercury, Venus and Earth with hardly a burp, it will grow so large that it can no longer hold onto its outermost layers of gas and dust.” (Mackenzie, via BBC, 2022)
Then it will continue to shine for thousands of years, before it disappears.
Even though this seems irrelevant and almost boring; humans actually do constantly think about their extinction, and due to the importance of the Sun for our survival it is purely logical that these questions arise.
When the sun actually dies, humans probably won’t be part of Earth as it is known today. In fact, it would happen in about 5 to 11 billion years. Taking into consideration that dinosaurs roamed Earth for around 165 million years, we can deduce that the human race won’t be here when the sun becomes a planetary nebula.
However hypothetically talking, If the sun were to spontaneously disappear or just stopped shining, it would make all bodies of the solar system (including the planets) fall out of orbit, and roam straight into space. As, the Sun’s gravity is the one that keeps all planets in orbit.
The Earth would start to become colder within 8 and a half minutes, as the light of the sun travels to Earth; Afterwards, the temperatures would start to decrease and in the long run it would affect crops. Hence food and other basic resources would become scarce. As photosynthesis wouldn’t be able to happen: herbivores, and carnivores would both die, because the food chain wouldn’t be able to happen. Meaning that it would be similar to the Big Freeze occurring earlier in history. Not even those who lived in colder climates would survive.
Despite everything prior mentioned, this case is merely hypothetical, and has little chances of actually happening.
So, if humanity and the human race dies, it probably won’t be because of the sun exploding and vaporizing Earth with it, but rather because of our own hand and our own wrong doings.
This example shows something clear that can be easily ignored. Even though the Sun is only one star inside a galaxy full of other components, any minor disturbance on its surface could change all the Solar system, and represent a threat to the Earth; moreover, it could alter the fate of humanity. Basically, it would play with the fine line that lingers upon our existence as humans.
My name is Natalia Pérez and this is “Our insignificant dying star”
