UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
How will the sun explode some day?
Question Date: 2018-04-22
Answer 1:

Our sun is a star, and all stars eventually explode when they die. Stars run off of the hydrogen fuel they have inside of them, and once it runs out, they get really big, really fast and then explode. After they explode, they shrink into tiny little things called white dwarves (white dwarfs) . This happens all the time in space, but luckily ours won’t explode for 7 billions years.


Answer 2:

The sun won't so much explode as it will puff off its outer layers. This is because the hot part of the sun that is undergoing nuclear reactions will expand as a sphere through the sun as first the hydrogen and then the helium are used up, forming a core of dense, unburnable elements. The hot core closer to the surface will cause the outer layers to expand outward, until eventually the sun's gravity isn't enough to hold them down.



Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use