Our Sun is a small star

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Zeze

Zeze

Lifer
Mar 4, 2011
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Oh I know this star, it's just below North Star (Sirius) whenever you look up.
 
Fritzo

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,162
126
I like the education but this gets posted at least once a week.
 
Sunny129

Sunny129

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2000
4,823
6
81
Zeze said:
Oh I know this star, it's just below North Star (Sirius) whenever you look up.
Click to expand...
Polaris is the North Star, not Sirius (whose claim to fame is that is known for being the brightest star in the night sky). You are correct thought that VY Canis Majoris is close to Sirius in the sky.
 
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davmat787

davmat787

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2010
5,512
24
76
Don't worry OP, our sun won't always be so puny of a star. As it runs out of fuel, it will grow and grow as it goes uppity and all Red Giant on our ass , eating Venus, Mercury, maybe Earth, etc, before going supernova where it will explode as it runs out of fuel or turn into a white dwarf, destroying our solar system. Eventually, our existence will depend on leaving the solar system, should we survive on earth long enough.

Your free happy thought for the morning!

*disclaimer: working on 1st cup of coffee

edit: good read on the suns future: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-sun-will-eventually-engulf-earth-maybe
 
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Evadman

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
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Came for Animaniacs reference, leaving disappointed.
 
Fritzo

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,920
2,162
126
davmat787 said:
Don't worry OP, our sun won't always be so puny of a star. As it runs out of fuel, it will grow and grow as it goes uppity and all Red Giant on our ass , eating Venus, Mercury, maybe Earth, etc, before going supernova where it will explode as it runs out of fuel or turn into a white dwarf, destroying our solar system. Eventually, our existence will depend on leaving the solar system, should we survive on earth long enough.

Your free happy thought for the morning!

*disclaimer: working on 1st cup of coffee

edit: good read on the suns future: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-sun-will-eventually-engulf-earth-maybe
Click to expand...

We're actually lucky we've got a yellow dwarf star. They're among the most stable and long lived. If we had a red dwarf, we'd have to be closer to get enough heat, which would lead to increased radiation, flare exposure, etc. If we had a larger star, we'd be too hot, and way too much radiation would blow our atmosphere away.

Be nice to our sun. It loves us :)
 
CPA

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
davmat787 said:
Don't worry OP, our sun won't always be so puny of a star. As it runs out of fuel, it will grow and grow as it goes uppity and all Red Giant on our ass , eating Venus, Mercury, maybe Earth, etc, before going supernova where it will explode as it runs out of fuel or turn into a white dwarf, destroying our solar system. Eventually, our existence will depend on leaving the solar system, should we survive on earth long enough.

Your free happy thought for the morning!

*disclaimer: working on 1st cup of coffee

edit: good read on the suns future: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-sun-will-eventually-engulf-earth-maybe
Click to expand...

Fuck you, not I have to throw up.
 
Zeze

Zeze

Lifer
Mar 4, 2011
11,395
1,189
126
Our sun is only about 4.5 bil yrs old out of its 7-9 bil life span. Relative to a person, it's only 40 years old.

The modern human intelligence is only about 100K to 250K years old? And in the mere last 500 years, we globalized our world, traveled to the moon, and made remarkable technological advancements.

The sun will outlive mankind a thousand times over. In a fucking BILLION years (not one thousand, or ten million), we probably evolved to a pure energy form traversing the galaxies.

Sun is the probably the LEAST of our worries.
 
Nintendesert

Nintendesert

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2010
7,761
5
0
VY Canis Fakus! After reading what they call it's size and diameter, that's some bullshit. Nobody counts the Sun's corona as part of it's surface and overall size, but here they are counting a dust cloud around the core, one that is even less dense than the Earth's atmosphere as part of that star. Shenanigans of the highest order here.
 
Sunny129

Sunny129

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2000
4,823
6
81
davmat787 said:
Don't worry OP, our sun won't always be so puny of a star. As it runs out of fuel, it will grow and grow as it goes uppity and all Red Giant on our ass , eating Venus, Mercury, maybe Earth, etc, before going supernova where it will explode as it runs out of fuel or turn into a white dwarf, destroying our solar system.
Click to expand...
the bolded statement is incorrect - the sun will not have enough mass required for a supernova at the end of its life. your latter statement about becoming a white dwarf however, is correct...although the transition to a white dwarf will not destroy the solar system. the sun's transition into a red giant before it becomes a white dwarf will destroy the inner part of the solar system, as you pointed out.


sao123 said:
so the brightest star in our sky... Sirius B is a white dwarf?
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no, Sirius A (a star of spectral class A0, not a white dwarf) is the brightest star in the night sky - not its white dwarf companion Sirius B. in fact, Sirius B cannot be seen with the naked eye - it takes a moderately powerful telescope to separate the two visually. otherwise, the binary star system that is Sirius appears to be a single star to the naked eye.
 
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