Scientists have worked when our Sun will die. It won't be any time soon. It will be 10 billion years. The scientists are the University of Manchester the UK. They predict that in 5 billion years from now, the Sun will turn a "red giant". This is the scientific name given to a star the end its life. When our Sun becomes a red giant, its centre will shrink. Its outer layers will expand as far as Mars. This means Earth will be burnt and disappear. After our Sun turns a red giant, it will become a planetary nebula. This is a bubble of gas and space dust. The scientists say no humans will be on Earth when the Sun dies out. Humans will disappear in around one billion years now.
The Sun is still quite young space years. It is just 4.6 billion years old. This means it is only around one third into its lifespan. Professor Albert Zijlstra, a scientist the University of Manchester, explained what happens the end of a star's life. He said: "When a star dies, it ejects a mass gas and dust into space....This reveals the star's core. By this point the star's life, it is running of fuel." He said it eventually turns off and dies. Professor Zijlstra was happy that modern science can calculate the age stars and what will happen to them. He said we can measure the presence stars distant galaxies, and "we even have found what the Sun will do when it dies".
