![]() ![]() As more hydrogen is converted into helium, the core continues to shrink, allowing the outer layers of the Sun to move closer to the center and experience a stronger gravitational force. So far, the Sun has converted an estimated 100 times the mass of the Earth into helium and solar energy. ![]() However, this process cannot last forever since there is a finite amount of hydrogen in the core of the Sun. For the Sun, this process began 4.57 billion years ago, and it has been generating energy this way every since. Every second, 600 million tons of matter are converted into neutrinos, solar radiation, and roughly 4 x 10 27 Watts of energy. The Sun, like most stars in the Universe, is on the main sequence stage of its life, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. And just a few million years later, it settled down into its current form. The Sun started as a T Tauri star – a wildly active star that blasted out an intense solar wind. The Sun spent about 100,000 years as a collapsing protostar before temperature and pressures in the interior ignited fusion at its core. The ball at the center would eventually form the Sun, while the disk of material would form the planets. Most of the material ended up in a ball at the center while the rest of the matter flattened out into disk that circled around it. ![]() As the denser regions pulled in more and more matter, conservation of momentum caused it to begin rotating, while increasing pressure caused it to heat up. Artist’s concept of a star surrounded by a molecular cloud to form a swirling disk called a “protoplanetary disk.” Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltechįrom this collapse, pockets of dust and gas began to collect into denser regions. This could have been the result of a passing star, or shock waves from a supernova, but the end result was a gravitational collapse at the center of the cloud. Then, about 4.57 billion years ago, something happened that caused the cloud to collapse. When that happens, some pretty drastic things will take place!Īccording to Nebular Theory, the Sun and all the planets of our Solar System began as a giant cloud of molecular gas and dust. This will stay the case for another four billion years, at which point, it will have exhausted its supply of hydrogen fuel. Over the course of the past four billion years, during which time planet Earth and the entire Solar System was born, it has remained relatively unchanged. To break it down, the Sun is about half way through the most stable part of its life. As always, God (or the Devil, depending on who you ask) is in the details! But this is just the abridged version of the Sun’s lifespan. This lifespan began roughly 4.6 billion years ago, and will continue for about another 4.5 – 5.5 billion years, when it will deplete its supply of hydrogen, helium, and collapse into a white dwarf. And like all stars, it has a lifespan, characterized by a formation, main sequence, and eventual death. In essence, it is a perfectly normal example of a G-type main-sequence star (G2V, aka. But with the advent of modern astronomy, humans have become aware of the fact that the Sun is merely one of countless stars in our Universe. The Sun has always been the center of our cosmological systems. ![]()
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