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Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.

Our Sun like every other astrophysical stellar mass has a limited life-span based on its store of nuclear fuel. As a fusion reaction in the stars core converts Hydrogen atom nuclei into Helium, the star expells heat and light energy as by products of the reaction.

The Sun has changed and developed over billions of years fluctuating in elemental composition, intensity, luminosity and scale. It will continue this pattern for many more billion years, following an established and commonly observed stellar cycle. Ultimately it will be this life giving force which, should the Earth survive all other astrophysical catastrophe, will increase in intensity drying the Earth's atmosphere, making it totally inhospitable, before eventually enveloping our planet.

Stellar Nebula / Pre-dating the formation of The Sun, over approximately 4.6bn years ago, was the gravitational collapse of a fragment region within a large molecular cloud of gas and dust, or Stellar Nebula. It is hypothesised that the shockwaves of a large and localised supernova or gravity of a passing star may have exerted the necessary force to initiate this reaction. As the cloud collapsed, conservation of momentum for all the particles in the cloud made it start spinning, pulling material towards the centre, forming pockets of denser material.

Protostar / As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The centre, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hot and dense. The competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun).

Yellow Main Sequence / Temperature and pressure in the Protostar's core continued to rise, eventually becomign so great that they ignited fusion in the core, creating an intenral source of energu that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, deriving energu from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium. The Sun exists in this exact state today, midway through this main sequence, and will continue to do so for approximately 5.5bn more years.

Red Giant Phase I / In approximately 5.5bn years the Sun's core will run out of Hydrogen. When this happens, the inert helium ash built up in the core will become unstable and collapse under its own weight. This will cause the core to heat up and get denser. the Sun will expand into a subgiant phase and slowly double in size over half a billion years. It will then expand more rapidly over about half a billion years until it is over two hundred times larger than today and a couple of thousand times more luminous. This then starts the Red Giant phase of its evolution where the Sun will spend around a billion years and lose around a third of its mass. It is estimated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of the solar system's inner planets, possibly including Earth.

Helium Burning Star / Following the Red Giant Phase the Sun's core will ignite violently in the Helium flash. The Sun will have sufficient heat and pressure at its core to begin a second stage of fusion, this time burning Helium to form Carbon. Shrinking to around 10 times its current size with 50 times the luminosity. Burning Helium in a stable core, much as it currently does with Hydrogen, the Sun will slowly grow in scale and luminosity.

Red Giant Phase II / The Helium fusion stage is short-lived and evenutally the Sun will, having depleted its fuel source, resort to nuclear reaction of Hydrogen and Helium reserves in its outer layers. The Sun will repeat the expansion it followed when the Hydrogen in its core was exhausted, this time growing in scale mich more quickly. Finally, due to rapid loss of mass, the star becomes increasingly unstable, causing it to pulse more and more violently approximately every 100,00 years, blowing a large proportion of its atmosphere into space over the course of several pulses.

Planetary Nebula / The Sun's remaining outer layers will be expelled by strong stellar winds, ejecting a vast stream of matter into space and forming a halo of glowing ionised gas. The ejected material will contain Helium and Carbon produced by the star's nuclear core, continuing the enrichment of the interstellar medium with heavy elements for future generations of stars. Eventually, after most of the red giant's atmosphere is dissipated, the exposed hot, luminous core emits ultraviolet radiation to ionize the ejected outer layers of the star. Absorbed ultraviolet light energises the shell of nebulous gas around the central star, appearing as a bright coloured planetary nebula.

White Dwarf / The immensely dense White Dwarf (or 'Degenerate Dwarf') is all that remains. It maintains a faint luminosity from the emission of stored thermal energy. Without the necessary material to undergoe fusion reaction, and no vital energy source, the star is no longer supported against gravitational collapse bu the heat generated from nuclear fusion. The Earth mass diamond, composed of Carbon and Oxygen, will gradually cool, growing dimmer.

Black Dwarf / Continuing to cool it is hypothesised that over the course of many billions of years the Sun will eventually finish as Black Dwarf. The calculated time necessary for this event to occur is predicted to be longer than the current age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years) and since it is impossible for any star to be older than the Universe itself, none have ever been observed, nor are they expected to exist.