White Dwarf, the last stop of everything!

It represents the ultimate evolution of stars like the sun, the White Dwarf. Do not be afraid. There are still 5 billion years, but the authors write this as if tomorrow to make us experience an unnecessary disturbance.

So how will the sun lose its power? Our sun will turn into a giant forge in its red giant stage; that is, it will start burning helium in its core instead of hydrogen. Since helium is a heavier atom, it will produce more energy; however, it will be depleted much faster than hydrogen as it burns at a higher temperature.

The outer gas layers of the Sun, whose core temperature increases as helium burns, will over-inflate, and our star will become a red giant, leaving it outside the main ranking stars category. Meanwhile, it will start to turn the helium in the core into carbon and oxygen by burning it.

In contrast, our Sun will shrink when it burns helium, just as it cools and contracts when it runs out of hydrogen in its core. Thus, it will ignite for the second time and continue to burn for a while. If you ask why It is hydrogen: Although nuclear fusion has stopped in the core, the hydrogen in the lower gas layer surrounding the core will be compressed and heated due to the shrinkage of the sun. This will cause the Sun to inflate again and expand.

As a matter of fact, we call this the second red giant phase: This time, instead of the core at the bottom, the Sun, which is heated directly from the lower layer, will be a much larger red giant. In short, the gases surrounding the Sun will become thinner, and the strong solar wind due to high temperature will blow all these gases into space. At this final stage, the sun will shrink and take its last breath and turn into a white dwarf.

Sad, ha? Don't be as I said. We still have 5 billion years to see that ;)