What If The Sun Suddenly Exploded?

We all know that the Sun is dying, but what if it exploded?

The Sun is essentially a star, which is called a supernova when it explodes. These explosions are extremely bright and powerful, releasing a lot of dust into space that will later be used to generate more planets and stars. These explosions are also what makes up our solar system, and humans too.

Apparently, a sudden explosion of our Sun would destroy the entire solar system. No worries though, only stars that are 10 times or more the size of the Sun can explode like this. Our sun will die differently.

A supernova is like a balloon bursting, while our Sun would die slowly like the air emitting from a balloon.

The Sun’s Death

Our Sun will begin to die in about 5 billion years when its fuel runs out, this is a really long time.

As the Sun begins to die, it will become a bit colder and bigger, turning into a “red giant”, as called by astronomers. Eventually, it will be so huge that it’ll eat Mercury, Venus, and our Earth.

At the same time, its outer layers will be blown off the solar system. Then the red giant will become smaller and smaller and finally become a white dwarf.

The Sun as a White Dwarf

A white dwarf, also known as a dead star’s core, is nearly as heavy as the Sun but as small as the Earth. Just a teaspoon of the white dwarf can be about 6,000 tons heavy – equal to the weight of an adult elephant.

The solar system will mostly remain around the Sun when it is a white dwarf. While Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars will still be alive and orbiting the Sun, Earth, Venus, and Mercury will have died then. The Kuiper belt, dwarf planets, and the asteroid belt will survive too.

Life after our Sun dies

The Sun keeps our Earth warm with its light, so after its death, all planets in the solar system will become cold, making it harder for life forms to continue.

However, in the future, there may be spaceships that will help us leave the Earth or we may create something to move our home planet. If we can do this, we can prevent it from eating Earth as it becomes a red giant.