Hope dims that Earth will survive Sun’s death

Hopes that planet Earth may survive the Sun’s red giant phase, which will occur in a couple of billion years time (hopefully later rather than sooner), have been dashed by a recent study into the eventuality.

In a few billion years, the Sun will fuse the last of its hydrogen into helium, turn into a red giant and expand to 250 times its current size. At first, the Sun’s loss of mass will loosen its gravitational pull on Earth, which will allow the planet to migrate to a wider orbit about 7.6 billion years from now.

While Earth will move further out into the solar system, a result of some push from the expanding Sun, it won’t be far enough. Unfortunately. We’ll still be burnt to a crisp.

A couple of billion years though should be sufficient time to relocate to another star system, as well as developing the technology to make such a move possible. Assuming we are still around come the time of course…