Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 5/20/2004

Question
Hi. I was wondering what will happen to our solar sytem when the sun burns out. Will the planets that survive from a new orbit around Jupiter? Will the sun form into a black hole and suck our solar system into it? Will the planets travel through space until they can be pulled in to orbit by another star? Thanks alot for your time. Sincerely, Sean Gonzalez

Answer
hi Sean,
I think it was einstein who said "god does not play dice"..meaning in nature everything follows the natural laws and things just dont happen "just like that".
1 - when the sun dies out, it will start expanding and reddening. The habitable zone in which the earth lies by chance, will migrate further and further away from the sun.
The oceans will begin to boil, the atmosphere will simply evaporate away. At last even the ocean water will trail away into space as vapor. the earth and inner planets will slowly be enveloped into the red hot outer envelop of the sun as it expands into the red giant phase.
2 - The sun will never be able to become a black hole as it does not have enough mass for that (4.3 solar masses).
3 - The planets will continue their old ways till the end when the sun's atmoshphere blows away as a nebula, and the sun begins its long journey into death, to atlast become a cold dark body.
4 - The planets will retain their "faith" in the sun thru "thick and thin". The chance of their exchanging the present sun for a new one is remote or nil.
Jayen