• Question: Can the sun crash into the earth or moon

    Asked by gingebha99 to Alexander, Josh, Serena, Stuart on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Hi gingebha99! Thanks for the dramatic question!

      I’m not sure about crashing, the way the earth and moon orbit around the sun is pretty stable. BUT! As the sun gets older (like, a few billion years older 😛 ) and starts to use up a lot of its hydrogen fuel, it’s going to start expanding and eventually will become what’s called a red giant.

      An expanding sun spells danger for the planets close by. Scientists are pretty sure that Mercury and Venus will get swallowed up, but there seem to be some different opinions about whether Earth will get swallowed up or escape. Either way, the Earth will become much too hot to live on. Here’s an article where they talk about this, and one researcher suggests we should try and move the Earth away from the sun as it expands!! Amazing

      http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-sun-will-eventually-engulf-earth-maybe

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