Scientists have discovered that, far in the future, our Sun will go through a massive transformation! Right now, it's a stable star in the middle of its life, but billions of years from now, it will start to run out of fuel. As this happens, it’ll expand into what’s called a "red giant," growing up to 300 times its current size! This means it could become so big that it might swallow up the planets closest to it, like Mercury, Venus, and possibly even Earth. The Sun’s outer layers will drift away, creating a beautiful shell of glowing gas called a planetary nebula. Eventually, it’ll shrink back down to a small, cool star called a white dwarf, ending its long life as a faint point of light. Credit: TheIenzo / Reddit Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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00:00A recent study has involved almost 200 huge stars that are reaching the end of their lives.
00:07It has given scientists more precise information about how the Sun will one day end.
00:13It turns out that the Sun will be about 200 to 300 times bigger than it is now by the time its game is over.
00:21For starters, let's begin with some basic information about star sizes.
00:26Giant ones reach this stage because they've run out of nuclear fuel and are no longer burning hydrogen in their core.
00:33Eventually, the core gets hot enough to trigger the next stage of fusion, which is helium burning.
00:39All the stars that were surveyed in this new study were either in this hydrogen shell burning or helium core burning phase.
00:48Even though giant and supergiant stars only make up less than 5% of all stars, or at least that we know of,
00:56they're actually really visible from a distance because they're so bright.
01:01In fact, according to scientists, about a third of all the stars you can see outside on a dark, moonless night are giant or supergiant stars.
01:12This study will eventually give astronomers really useful info about massive stars.
01:17They'll be able to figure out their size and temperature no matter where they are or their evolutionary stage.
01:24This means they can see a star's true color and use that to find out its radius. Pretty cool, right?
01:32It does raise the question, what will our Sun be like when it gets old and grumpy?
01:37To put it simply, it will expand when it starts burning its hydrogen shell, but then shrink a bit during its helium core burning phase.
01:46After a few hundred million years, it'll end up as a giant star about 200 to 300 times its current size.
01:54Eventually, the Sun will expand so much that it will simply evaporate.
01:59So, what will happen after the Sun fades away?
02:04Scientists actually have some predictions about what will go down, even though we won't be around to see it.
02:10They're pretty sure the Sun will turn into a planetary nebula.
02:14These planetary nebulae are chunks of gas and dust in space that come from a star that is fading away.
02:22They got their name because they looked like planets to people using telescopes back in the 18th century,
02:28even though we now know they have nothing to do with actual planets.
02:33And here's the crazy thing.
02:35Astronomers have found out they can use the level of brightness of these planetary nebulae to calculate their distance from us.
02:42In 2018, scientists also found out that the Sun is the smallest a star can be to still be able to produce a visible nebula.
02:51Any smaller and it would not be visible.
02:54Stars that are up to three times more massive than the Sun will produce brighter nebulae.
03:00The Sun is currently 4.6 billion years old, but it's estimated to have another 10 billion years until its end.
03:09The Sun is also getting brighter with each year.
03:13It doesn't seem like a lot now, but it's actually going to cause some big problems for Earth.
03:19In about a billion years, the Sun will be too bright for life on Earth to survive.
03:25Our oceans will evaporate and it will be too hot for water to form again.
03:30So unless we find a way to escape from this planet, humanity only has about a billion years left.
03:38Will Earth still be around by the time the Sun turns to dust?
03:42It's hard to know for sure the exact timeline.
03:46But even before that happens, Earth will most likely be scorched and lifeless, with no atmosphere or oceans left.
03:53It's not clear how close the Sun's outer layers will get to Earth.
03:57But if they get too close, it could cause Earth to spiral into the Sun and disappear altogether.
04:05Even if our planet does somehow manage to survive the Sun's giant phase, it will be orbiting a hot white dwarf.
04:13Or a star that has run out of its fuel.
04:16In that distant future, the Sun will be barely larger than our planet.
04:21Eventually, the Sun will cool and dim completely.
04:24It will move to another stage called a black dwarf.
04:27It will cause Earth's orbit to loosen up and our planet will spiral into the faded Sun.
04:33But interestingly, the Sun doesn't get the final say in what happens to Earth.
04:39Gravity keeps planets in orbit, but it also attracts them to each other.
04:43Which can cause their orbits to flex and drift.
04:46This could lead to the Solar System destabilizing and ejecting planets, including Earth.
04:52Basically, a lot might happen in the next 5 billion years before the Sun becomes a red giant.
05:00There's also another scenario.
05:03While most stars stay far away from our Solar System, there's a chance that one could come closer in the next billion years.
05:10Even a small star or black hole could mess up the orbit of our planet if it gets too close.
05:17But don't worry too much, the odds of that happening are low because of the amount of space between stars.
05:24Our Sun is a solitary star, so there's little to no chance we'll be able to catch a ride with another one nearby.
05:32However, many stars in our universe have companions.
05:35Among these stars is Castor, a stunning system that comprises 6 stars and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
05:45Although humans have been admiring Castor for ages, they were not aware of its true nature until the invention of telescopes and spectroscopes.
05:55Even with the help of a small telescope, it's evident that Castor is composed of two primary stars, Castor A and B A, that revolve around each other.
06:05These stars are larger than the Sun and need 467 years to complete one orbit.
06:12In total, Castor is composed of 6 different stars.
06:16The biggest one, called Castor AA, is roughly two times larger than the Sun, while the smallest has about 0.5 of the Sun's mass.
06:26If humans want to survive the next billions of years, we might need to set up camp somewhere else in the universe.
06:33It may seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it could be our reality one day.
06:39Thankfully, NASA is already looking at some options.
06:42They've discovered two new planets, TOI-700E and TOI-700D.
06:49That might be new hotspots for us humans.
06:53TOI-700E is the optimistic zone, which means it could have water and even an atmosphere.
07:00TOI-700D is in the conservative habitable zone, so scientists aren't too sure about it yet, but hey, we'll take what we can get.
07:10But hold on, before you start packing your bags, there's a little problem.
07:15How do we get there?
07:17It took John Glenn months of preparation just to circle Earth three times.
07:22So we might need to start working on our astronaut training.
07:26Well, at least we have some options for our future intergalactic vacation plans.
07:31Wouldn't it be nice if we could time travel so we could see what our solar system will look like in billions of years?
07:37An American physicist named Ron Mallett has proposed one interesting theory for time travel.
07:44It uses light, a resource that is abundant in the universe.
07:48His idea involves using a rotating cylinder of light, which could transport an object in both space and time, similar to how a bubble moves in a swirling liquid.
07:59Mallett suggests that a cylinder of the right shape could allow for travel to the past and the future.
08:05To test his theory, he has been trying to secure funding for an experiment.
08:10However, some scientists consider Mallett's theory to be impossible and unnecessary to test.
08:16We might also be able to travel through time if we move fast enough.
08:21According to Einstein, the way we experience time can change depending on how fast we're moving.
08:27If we go really fast, time slows down.
08:30For example, astronauts in space age a tiny bit more slowly than people on Earth.
08:36This is important for things like GPS, which would be incorrect without special adjustments because of how time is affected.