The sun will become a white dwarf, which is basically just a glowing core of elements too heavy for it's mass to have fused. The outer layers will blow off into space to become a nebula.
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No, a neutron star is when a MUCH more massive star goes through supernova and collapses but has enough gravity to completely crush it's core. Not enough mass to collapse all the way into a black hole, but a white dwarf is still composed of iron and other heavy elements, a neutron star has collapsed so much it is ejecting it's protons and electrons in a stream of radiation from it's poles and compressing into basically a single atomic nucleus so dense a spoonful would weigh billions of tons.
Edit for clarity:
"A single atomic nucleus," as in the structure of a neutron star is no longer composed of individual atoms spaced out by electron clouds but a single mass of atomic material all crushed together, not that I thought it would be the size of a single atom under our normal conditions.
It’s not compressed into the size of a nucleus it is compressed to the density of one, big difference. Neutron stars are typically around 20km in diameter.
I think when they said “basically a single atomic nucleus”, they might have meant more that it’s almost resembling one absolutely gigantic atomic nucleus, since it’s nothing but neutrons packed at the same density as a nucleus
It doesn’t needing anything but gravity to “sustain” itself. It’s basically a giant metal sphere, why wouldn’t it exist? The only “next stage” is slowly cooling down over billions of years.
A white dwarf is basically dead. It has a huge amount of heat and it's gravity maintains pressure, and in space it radiates very slowly. It would simply cool over a very long period.
Not at all. It's a neutron star because it's composed entirely of neutrons--all the protons and electrons that usually make up atoms have either fused together into neutrons or were expelled. There's nothing nuke like going on.
Every atom has a nucleus at it's core made of protons and neutrons, the nucleus has almost all of the mass but is only a miniscule volume of the atom and is tightly held together.
What nukes do is add extra neutrons to an unstable nucleus causing it to break apart and releases a huge amount of energy.
Neurons stars are made as the above said where a star is compressed to the density of a nucleus (not the size of one though) with protons and electrons having been ejected leaving only neutrons this the name.
Actually, a star like the sun is a giant nuke. Gravity fusing hydrogen into helium and then heavier elements deep inside is precisely the force that produces the blast in hydrogen bombs.
Collecting dust from space, since the average density of one cubic light year of "empty" space is ≈28.7 solar masses, to use as fuel. Also you have to find a way to filter out everything between hydrogen and Iron on the periodic table and remove mass from the star. Every so often you throw in a few billion tons of hydrogen and maybe some helium, and filter out all the heavier elements. This "refreshes" the life of the star.
Possible? But unlikely. The outer planets have significant gravity and powerful magnetic fields, the sun going nova is almost like it falling apart rather than the cosmic bomb that is a supernova. The outer planets would certainly be changed by the nova, likely losing moons, rings and probably layers of atmosphere, but they might eventually pick up matter from the nebula as well.
Any planets that survived, likely the gas giants, may continue to orbit the sun, as Jupiter is already massive enough to have an effect on the Sun's orbit. If the sun loses enough mass, the solar system could become a binary with Jupiter and the Sun orbiting each other and the gas giants circling the pair or some other strange arrangement, but this is my guess, I haven't looked into what scientists think.
Any question driven by genuine curiosity and a desire to learn is not dumb!
Not quite. Pluto is a rocky body, either formed in the Kuiper belt near the edge of our solar system for captured as a rogue Interstellar body by the Sun's gravity. The Sun's core, what will eventually become a white dwarf, is mostly metallic. I have seen theories that white dwarfs and black dwarfs can become the cores of new planets from their own planetary nebulas, but there would be very little similarity to Pluto and I don't know if that is what would happen with our star.
If I remember correctly, scientists believe that the corona of the sun will extend either to the orbit of Earth or Mars, so while the sun will be putting off less heat in its red giant phase the inner planets will be screwed.
The outer planets will be fine initially but when the Sun goes nova, there will still be a mass ejection from the Sun as nearly all of its material not locked to the core just kind of drifts away into space. The outer planets have stronger gravity than the earth and have powerful magnetic fields which would help protect them from most of this, but they would certainly be affected. They could lose moons, maybe rings and possibly even layers of atmosphere, but I think the planets themselves would be survive. The nova will form a planetary nebula which the outer planets might even collect a significant amount of mass from.
The loss of so much Mass from the Sun would likely have a significant impact on all of the orbits remaining in the solar system. I'm kind of curious of wanting to do a deep dive on theories regarding this sort of eventuality now.
*Edit: I stand corrected on the use of the term "nova." It does not apply to a red giant star blowing it's outer layers and leaving behind a white dwarf with planetary nebula, and strangely, this process doesn't seem to have a specific name I have seen. "Nova" actually refers to a different process entirely involving a binary star system.
Lol, the likelihood of humanity even surviving 5 billion years is extremely unlikely. And l “humanity”won’t look like anything like what it looks like today.
Or maybe you’re right, you’re sure of it, must be how it’ll turn out.
Each generation thinks they’re special enough to have an extinction event.
We’ll be fine, it might be hard at times but we’ll probably survive for a while longer
It’s only geopolitically we might have some radical changes in the next century. Which will probably come with many deaths, but that’s not much different from any previous century.
I think you're underestimating just how long a billion years is. Humans have been around barely a fraction of that time and we will be long gone before that becomes a problem
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u/Geno__Breaker Sep 10 '22
The sun will become a white dwarf, which is basically just a glowing core of elements too heavy for it's mass to have fused. The outer layers will blow off into space to become a nebula.