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Life cycle of our Sun
- the time frame of the Solar System’s formation has been determined using radiometric dating – Scientists estimate that the Solar System is over 4 billion years old.
Radiometric dating
(Click here for enlarge)
Our Sun
- now our Sun around 4.6 billion years old – medium sized star, and halfway through its life.
- probably live for other 11 billion years times.
- after 11 billions years, our Solar System is gone.
- over the next two or three, maybe four billion years, our Sun will brighten and swell until it is twice as bright and 50% bigger.
- in 5 billion years, our Sun’s hydrogen fuel will have burnt out – inside our Sun’s core will start to shrink.
- as its core shrinks – the rest of our Sun will swell up and its surface will become cooler and redder.
- this will be a `Red Giant Star` that you can see compare other stars in our night skies today.
- Our Earth will burn out long before our Sun is big enough to completely swallow it.
Example: Our Sun will end as a white dwarf.
Back to The Sun page or  The Solar System page / next to The Planets page.