We all know that the end of the world will come eventually, but what exactly will it be like?
In a new study, scientists warned that Earth’s demise could be even more violent and chaotic than we thought.
Our planet will be devoured by our expanding sun, according to researchers at the University of Warwick.
Meanwhile, other planets in the solar system will be “crushed and reduced to dust.”
Fortunately, there’s no need to panic just yet, as scientists say this will likely happen in about six billion years.
Scientists say the solar system could one day be destroyed by the sun when it swallows the Earth and crushes other bodies into dust. Luckily for us, scientists believe there are another 6 billion years before this happens.
Stars like our sun generate light and heat by crushing hydrogen atoms into helium under the enormous forces of gravity.
However, all stars only have a limited amount of hydrogen, and when it begins to run out, the forces that keep the star stable become unbalanced.
Starting in about five billion years, our Sun will burn the hydrogen in its core, before expanding to more than 200 times its original size as it begins to burn helium in its outer layers.
While some massive stars explode in supernovae when they collapse, our star is small enough to simply die out as it consumes the last of its nuclear fuel.
When this happens in about six billion years, it will leave behind a white dwarf: an ultradense remnant of the Sun’s core, glowing with residual heat as it slowly cools.
These stellar cores can have as much mass as the Sun but be no larger than the Earth, giving them an extremely powerful gravitational field.
Scientists say that when our sun becomes a white dwarf star six billion years from now, its gravitational pull will be so strong that some asteroids and even Jupiter’s moons could be “shredded” into dust.
As the Sun runs out of hydrogen, it will begin to expand into a red giant (artistic image in photo) that will engulf the Earth.
Professor Boris Gaensicke of the University of Warwick said: “The sad news is that the Earth will probably be swallowed up by an expanding Sun, before it becomes a white dwarf.”
However, less is known about what will happen to the rest of the solar system once the Sun has shrunk to a white dwarf.
In their new study, the researchers examined the brightness of three different white dwarf stars over 17 years.
By watching the brightness increase and decrease, scientists were able to determine when objects passed in front of the Sun and what type of objects they were.
For most stars, brightness changes, or transits, are very predictable as the planets orbit in their regular pattern.
But around white dwarf stars, researchers found that the transits were very chaotic and irregular.
This suggests that the fate of bodies surrounding white dwarf stars is likely to be catastrophic and violent.
Planets, asteroids and moons that approach a white dwarf’s dense core crumble as gravity separates them into smaller pieces.
Over time, these pieces turn to dust as they collide with each other.
This dust continues to orbit the dead star until it eventually disperses into the universe.
In our own solar system, this will be the fate of many of the remaining bodies that are not swallowed up or destroyed by the expansion of the sun.
Professor Gaensicke said: “For the rest of the solar system, some of the asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter, and perhaps some of Jupiter’s moons, may be dislodged and travel close enough to the eventual white dwarf to suffer the process of destruction that we have had”. investigated.”
The researchers found similar destructive moments in the history of the stars they studied, with one star experiencing a “major catastrophic event” in 2010.
However, the unpredictable nature of white dwarf systems has made their study difficult.
“The simple fact that we can detect remnants of asteroids, perhaps moons or even planets orbiting a white dwarf every two hours, is quite mind-blowing, but our study shows that the behavior of these systems can evolve rapidly,” says the Professor Gaensické.
“The unpredictable nature of these transits can drive astronomers crazy: one moment they are there and the next they are gone. And this indicates the chaotic environment in which they find themselves.”
White dwarfs, as shown in this artist’s impression, are extremely chaotic and violent places. Scientists have analyzed the light they emit to study what they do to planets and asteroids in their orbit.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE EARTH WHEN THE SUN DEADS?
It is said that within five billion years the Sun will have become a red giant star, more than a hundred times larger than its current size.
Over time, it will expel gas and dust to create an “envelope” that will account for up to half its mass.
The core will become a tiny white dwarf star. This will shine for thousands of years, illuminating the envelope to create a ring-shaped planetary nebula.
It is said that within five billion years the Sun will have become a red giant star, more than a hundred times larger than its current size.
While this metamorphosis will change the solar system, scientists are not sure what will happen to the third rock from the Sun.
We already know that our Sun will be bigger and brighter, so it will probably destroy any life on our planet.
But it’s unclear whether Earth’s rocky core will survive.