Enjoy The Heat, The Sun's Got 5 Billion Years Of Life Ahead

Even though it is estimated that our fiery ball of gas is going to die out trillions of years in the future, there will be many changes that will happen much sooner, heralding the end of our solar system, Antony Ashkenaz reported for the UK Express.

Photo Insert: Scientists estimate that the sun's "life" in its current phase, known as its "main sequence" will end about five billion years from now.

Scientists estimate that the sun's "life" in its current phase, known as its "main sequence" will end about five billion years from now. In its current phase, the nuclear fusion of hydrogen inside the sun allows it to radiate energy and provide enough pressure to keep the star from collapsing under its own mass.

Speaking to Live Science, astrophysicist Paolo Testa said: "The sun is a little less than five billion years old. It's a kind of middle-age star, in the sense that its life is going to be of the order of 10 billion years or so."

Testa is an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, which is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory.

According to NASA: “In general, the larger a star, the shorter its life, although all but the most massive stars live for billions of years.” After the sun has burned through most of the hydrogen in its core, it will transition to its next phase as a red giant.

Deprived of the energy production needed to support it, the core begins to collapse into itself and becomes much hotter. Hydrogen is still available outside the core, so hydrogen fusion continues in a shell surrounding the core.

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