What would happen of our sun completed H burning and began He burning?

[BarkingGhostar]

What would the impact be? I would imagine the minute loss in mass would have the long term effect of a lessen gravitational influence, but I would imagine the more immediate effect would be a potential change in energy reaching the Earth.

This assumes, of course, that the mass of our sun (Sol) is sufficient to transition from Hydrogen burning to Helium burning in the first place.

 

[inachu]

From all the science TV shows I have watched it seems that to change or cut the life of a sun in half is to introduce vast amounts of iron into it.

 

[SunburstLP]

I'll leave it to Dr. Plait to explain. It's fairly complex and I'm nowhere near being an astronomer or physicist. Basically, bad things for earth, but pretty groovy if you nerd out over astrophysics.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/07/05/the_ghost_in_the_shell.html

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/10/10/a_dying_star_weaves_a_spiral_in_the_night.html