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The Sun is the star at the center of the solar system – a sphere of hot plasma that is the most important source of energy for life on Earth. Although it hasn’t changed drastically in over four billion years, scientists believe the Sun is roughly halfway through its life cycle. It currently fuses around 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second, converting four million tonnes of matter into energy.
But experts say that in about five billion years, it will run out of energy and radically alter the solar system.
Researchers believe that when the Sun begins to grow dramatically, its outer layers will expand until they engulf the planets, as they become what astronomers call a red giant.
But NASA’s New Horizons mission principal investigator Dr Alan Stern has revealed that while it can kill any life still on Earth, it could also create habitable worlds in the colder regions of the cosmos.
He said: “Late in the life of the Sun – in the red giant phase – the Kuiper Belt will be a Miami Beach metaphor.”
Dr Stern believes any remaining humans could find refuge on Pluto and other distant dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt – a region after Neptune filled with icy space rocks.
As the Sun expands, the conditions on these worlds will change drastically into what Dr. Stern has described as “habitable deferred gratification worlds.”
Today, dwarf planets like Pluto contain abundant water ice and complex organic matter and some of them have been tilted to have oceans under their surfaces.
But the surface temperatures of these alien bodies are hundreds of degrees below freezing.
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He said: “It will grow to 200 times its size today, stretching into Earth’s orbit where the prospects for our own planet are bleak.
“The wonder that has remained so constant throughout its ten billion years of life will end its days like a giant red star.
“For a few short moments it will be 2,000 times brighter than it is today, but it won’t last long.
“Eventually it will lose its outer layers and all that will be left will be its cooling core, a light ash that will shine, well, almost until the end of time.
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