Our Sun- Boon today, destructer tomorrow?

Let's Explore The Sun

For the past 4.53 billion years, the Sun has been shining in the sky brightly. But there is famous saying that everything which is born in this universe is bound to die someday. This same fact also implies our sun which will also die one day.

The death of the sun will be so massive that it will vanish humanity from the earth. So let's start with basic information.

Basic Facts

Our Sun is a spherical ball of plasma which is located at a distance of 149.55 million Km from Earth.

Our sun is a yellow dwarf but the main fact is that the real color of the sun is white due to the scattering by the atmosphere it seems to be yellow in color. 
According to scientists, The sun will keep shinning for the next 5 billion years but its adverse effects on earth will start after 1 billion years where the energy received by the earth from the sun will increase by about 10%. It is very hard to imagine that the sun which is currently providing energy to the earth and is involved in many biological activities essential to maintain life on earth will one day become the main cause for destroying the Earth.

How the Sun is formed?

About 4.5 billion years ago, a nebula which is an accumulation of dust and gases get collapsed under its own gravity. This process marks the beginning of the formation of the sun. After this process, the formation of the sun took a million years. After the sun was formed the remaining dust, rocks, and gases accumulate together to form the planets. In this way, our sun and the solar system was formed.

How the Sun Produces its energy?

Every star produces its energy by a process called nuclear fusion or nucleosynthesis in which lighter elements fuse together to form heavier energy. This process requires a very high temperature to happen which can only be achieved in a star. As we know that a star is mainly composed of hydrogen so this process starts with the fusion of hydrogen with hydrogen to form helium. Later helium fuses with helium to form more big compounds. In this way a star produces energy.

Structure of the Sun

A structure of the sun consists of 6 parts 

1. Core - The center part of the sun is referred to as the core. the process of nuclear fusion takes place in the core as the temperature is highest in the core around 15 million degrees celsius.

2. Radiation Zone- Above the core, there is a radiation zone where energy formed in the core comes out as electromagnetic radiation. This energy is carried out by the photon particles.

3. Convection Zone- It is the outermost part of the solar interior. It extends up to the surface of the sun. Energy is transferred to this zone by the process of convection. Convection is the circular motion that happens when warmer air or liquid — which has faster-moving molecules, making it less dense — rises, while the cooler air or liquid drops down. 

4. Photosphere- It is the visible surface of the sun that we see from the earth. It is about 100 km dense and is composed of fast-moving plasma cells. The temperature of this surface is 6000 Degree Celcius.

5. Chromosphere- It is the second outermost layer which has very little density. It is found between the photosphere and corona. It is made up of particles of hydrogen and helium in the form of plasma. As its density is very less due to which it is only visible during a solar eclipse and appears transparent rest of the time.

6. Corona - It is the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere which is also usually not visible to naked eyes. It is also made up of hot plasma. Due to the bright light emitted by the sun's surface the corona gets hidden and like the chromosphere it is also can be seen during a total solar eclipse.

End of the Sun

To understand how the sun will end up we need to remember this that Every star(sun which is also a star) has 2 types of force.

1. Gravitational force- This force attracts the Star's body towards its core. (inward)

2. Radiation Force- This force pushes the star outward. This force will remain in existence as long as the nuclear fusion process is carried out.

These two forces act opposite to each other and maintain a balance in a star which keeps the star stable.

But during nuclear fusion, many heavy elements are produced in the core of the sun and other stars but when the iron is produced in the core then it does not fuse further to produce energy and starts to accumulate in the core. 

After a few million years when the concentration of iron increases in the core then the fusion of nuclear fusion stops and along with this the formation of radiation force also stops due to which the balance between the radiation and gravitation force also breaks up. Now the remaining gravitation force pulls the whole star to accumulate in the core and within a few seconds, the core of the star collapse throwing all the material of the star in the space, along with the material gamma rays are also released which can destroy any planet located near or even at a distance of few light-years. Now if this will happen with the sun then it will become a white dwarf. 

How the Sun will end Humanity?

As we have read earlier that the death of the sun will be violent which will vanish the existence of humans from the solar system but before this violent event the humans can die because of the increase in the size of the sun. After 5 billion years from now, the sun will burn up all its hydrogen and will start to burn the helium due to this it will become a red giant and its increase in size will consume mercury, venus and our earth also. 

Let's assume that we can somehow able to create a human civilization on Mars but after 3.5 million years when helium will also completely burned up by the sun then it will die throwing its all mass towards space along with gamma rays, these gamma rays when hit mars and other planets then it will completely destroy the remaining planets in the solar system marking a painful end of humans in the solar system.

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