End Of The World Will Happen When The Sun Dies Whether People Like It Or Not

One of the things people love to speculate about is the end of the world. There are a lot of theories on when the world will end and how. The effects of global warming are one of the top reasons people believe will end the world. But there is still a big chance of survival if something can be done to limit the effects of global warming of the planet. One of the surest ways that the world will end is when the Sun will die. The Sun is already in the process of dying and nothing can be done to stop it. Can humans survive then?

A group of researchers headed by Professor Leen Decin from Belgium are trying to find the answer about the survival of the Earth when the Sun dies. And the scientists are hoping to find the answer through studying the distant star L2 Puppis. Using the ALMA telescope, a 16-kilometer diameter giant telescope formed from 66 individual antennas, scientists set out to observe and study the L2 Puppis star 208 light years away from the Earth.

L2 Puppis is a red giant star on the last stages of its stellar evolution. According to KU Leuven, a study from KU Leuven Institute of Astronomy, the L2 Puppis is 10 billion years old. Five billion years ago, L2 Puppis was the same size as the Sun. However, through stellar evolution, it grew bigger and brighter then exploded. It lost a third of its mass and is now the size of the Earth.

Besides studying the L2 Puppis, the researchers are hoping to find the answer to Earth's survival when the Sun explodes, through a planet orbiting the L2 Puppis. The planet orbiting is 300,000 kilometers from L2 Puppis. Will the Earth suffer the same fate as this orbiting planet?

Published in the journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Dr. Decin says that it is certain that the Sun will die. Five billion years from now, the Sun will follow the stellar evolution and grow 100 times bigger and brighter than today. It will engulf Mercury and Venus, thereby destroying these planets. After which, the Sun will lose a third of its mass due to stellar winds -- just like what happened to L2 Puppis.

The extreme heat and light the Sun will give off are certain to kill all life on Earth. What the scientists hope to learn is after all life on Earth is extinguished, will the very core of the Earth survive the Sun exploding and plunging the Solar System into a fiery inferno? And that is why the researchers from Belgium are studying L2 Puppis and the planet orbiting it.