• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Scientists say the sun will expand 1,000 times its size and destroy Earth

Home> Technology> Space

Published 18:46 2 Nov 2023 GMT

Scientists say the sun will expand 1,000 times its size and destroy Earth

It's predicted that it will wipe out Earth 'instantly'

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton

Scientists have been looking into what the future holds for the sun and Earth, and it doesn't look very optimistic.

The sun is located a whopping 150 million km away, but can still wreak havoc here on Earth - global warming being an example.

But it might not be climate change that's our ultimate demise, but the sun engulfing our planet.

Advert

Yes, you read that right.

A new paper appearing in The Astrophysical Journal looks into Rho Coronae Borealis - a yellow dwarf star that's not dissimilar to our own sun.

The star is around the same mass, radius, and luminosity as the sun, with the main difference between the two being their ages.

Advert

Rho Coronae Borealis is thought to be around 10 billion years old, while the sun is half of that.

Researchers found that the star is nearing the end of its lifecycle, meaning it will eventually turn into a red giant.

And in the process of turning into a red giant, the star will engulf its surrounding planets.

According to scientists, there are four known orbiting planets around Rho Coronae Borealis and they will be impacted by the stellar atmosphere of the transition.

Advert

Rho Coronae Borealis will turn into a red giant.
Pr3t3nd3r/Getty Stock

Basically, they'll be eaten by it. Lovely.

Stephen R. Kane, from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, is the sole writer of the study and explained: "Post main sequence stellar evolution can result in dramatic, and occasionally traumatic, alterations to the planetary system architecture, such as tidal disruption of planets and engulfment by the host star."

The process of it turning into a red giant isn't expected to occur for another billion years, though.

Advert

With Rho Coronae Borealis likeness to our sun, it's predicted that the same thing will happen and it will go on to turn into a red giant too.

But, with it being dramatically younger than Rho Coronae Borealis, the sun's transition isn't expected to happen for another several billion years.

The sun will engulf surrounding inner planets.
rbkomar/Getty

Its 1,000 larger form is then expected to consume or at least destroy all of the inner planets - Earth included.

Advert

The sun's other inner planets are Mercury, Mars and Venus.

"The evolution of stars through their progression on the main sequence, expansion into a giant star, and then final contraction into a white dwarf, has profound consequences for the orbiting planets," Kane wrote in his study.

But this is still billions of years away, so it's likely climate change will get us first if we don't buck our ideas up, folks.

Featured Image Credit: DrPixel/Getty / MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty

Topics: News, Space, Science

Niamh Shackleton
Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is an experienced journalist for UNILAD, specialising in topics including mental health and showbiz, as well as anything Henry Cavill and cat related. She has previously worked for OK! Magazine, Caters and Kennedy.

X

@niamhshackleton

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Scientists are baffled after finding part of the Sun is actually 'broken'
  • Scientists say alien life could exist on a moon close to Earth that's covered in icy boulders
  • Earth has tilted 31.5 inches and scientists believe one thing is to blame
  • Scientists claim Earth’s core is leaking hidden gold after making surprising discovery

Choose your content:

17 hours ago
21 hours ago
a day ago
  • 17 hours ago

    Disturbing fake news reports made with AI look so real it's making people terrified for the future

    From floods to wars, people are making eerily realistic news reports using AI generators

    Technology
  • 21 hours ago

    NASA issues disturbing update on 'city destroying' asteroid that could hit the moon in a matter of years

    The 'city destroying' asteroid could hit the Moon in the year 2032

    Technology
  • a day ago

    NASA astronaut reveals what sunrise in space looks like that ISS experiences 5,800 times a year

    ISS astronauts see the sun set and rise 16 times a day

    Technology
  • a day ago

    Scientists studying controversial 'UFO sphere' claim to have made a shocking discovery

    Freaky...

    Technology