4 ms·
Sol is gas, right? Gasses cool when they expand, right? What’s the expected surface temperature of Sol after it has expanded past Earth’s orbit?
by tlholaday 5y ago
Sol is gas, right?
Gasses cool when they expand, right?
What’s the expected surface temperature of Sol after it has expanded past Earth’s orbit?
- gs17 5y agoLooks like it will drop to about half the current surface temperature as it expands (although this seems to be talking about it at around 0.5 AU) http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~ryden/ast162_4/notes15.html http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~ryden/ast162_4/notes15....
- tlholaday 5y agoThanks for the link. I wonder what temperature prevails at 1.0 AU. On the one hand, artists’ conceptions of boiled oceans and cities in cinders that saddened and discouraged me in my childhood. On the other hand, the heat energy density of Sol today is comparable to a compost heap. When the radius of a sphere doubles, it’s volume increase eight times. If Sol is too itsy to start helium fusion, maybe orbiting within the post-expansion photosphere - the hydrogen envelope - is chill, damp, and sparky?
- rootusrootus 5y agoThe sun won't (potentially) swallow up the Earth for about 8 billion more years. The carbon cycle on this planet will have ended about 7 billion years before then; the increased output of the sun will have boiled away the oceans; plate tectonics will stop, etc. There won't be anything alive on this planet left to see the sun burn out.
- tlholaday 5y agoSounds bad for surface life. Morlocks live underground.