RE: Will the sun explode?
August 29, 2018 at 11:04 pm
(This post was last modified: August 29, 2018 at 11:17 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(August 29, 2018 at 9:46 pm)Kit Wrote: I am getting conflicting answers from science sources. Therefore, I would like your educated opinion.
One source states the sun will never explode because its mass is not large enough to cause it to explode at the end of its life cycle.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.univers...plode/amp/
Another source states it will explode.
https://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=71
What say you?
Depends on what you mean by explode.
Will the sun suddenly go off, releasing as much energy in its final few seconds as it did during the entire rest of its 10 billion year life? No. The sun will never undergo core collapse supernova explosion. The sun has only a fraction of the mass necessary to trigger that kind of terminal explosion at the end of its life.
But the sun will undergo a prolonged, slow motion explosion after consuming all the hydrogen in its core, ignite the ash from its hydrogen burning life and inflate into a red giant. Basically the sun at this stage will become so bloated and push its own surface so far from its core, that its own gravity will begin to lose hold of its own outer layers. So the outer layer of the sun will be gradually blown out into space by the energy still being pumped out by the core, in a sort of slow, long lasting explosion that may exhibit multiple pulses. The material blown out this way will form what is called a planetary nebula, which is an expanding sphere of luminescent gases. Think of it as a sort of sedate explosion that takes place over millions of years rather than a few seconds. But it’s slow speed aside, it will blow a substantial chunk of the sun’s mass out into space before it is spent.
