Saturday, April 29, 2017

Y is for Yellow Dwarf

We are almost done with exploring heavenly bodies in this year’s April’s A-Z challenge.  Y is for Yellow Dwarf.  No, I don’t mean Snow White’s Asian suitor, but a “g-type main-sequence star.”  All that gobble-goop means is a star like our sun!  These stars range in color from white to slightly yellow.  Our sun is actually a white star but appears more yellow because of our atmosphere.  This is something one might lose sleep over.  Our sun is burning 4 million tons of fuel a second.  Imagine that number, 4 million tons a second!  As it consumes this much fuel, it is producing the equivalent energy of 60 billion times the electricity produced by all the world’s power plants.  The sun can’t keep this up.  Sooner or later the sun will run out of fuel and then all our investments in solar energy will be wasted.  What are we to do?

Well, don’t sweat it, for as the sun begins to run short on fuel, it’ll throw one final party as it bellows itself into a red giant.  Then you’ll sweat it, but not for long for the earth will be consumed (as will we).  But don’t worry too much, that shouldn’t happen for another 4.5 billion years or so.  Chances are, we’ll all be long gone or have blown each other up by then.   After that last big party, the sun will dump a lot of its excessive matter, forming a planetary nebula as the core gradually shrink into a white dwarf. 

Of all the heavenly bodies we’ve discussed, there is one yellow dwarf is the easiest to spot.  Think you’re  up for the task?  (just don't stare at the sun, it's not good for your eyes).

14 comments:

  1. It would be pretty impressive if humans managed to survive 4.5 billion more years. I wonder how we'd evolve in that much time? Bald/hairless, no pinky toes, taller? Fun to think about. :)

    A to Z 2017: Magical and Medicinal Herbs

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  2. I'm hoping that in time, we won't blow ourselves up and that we'll find a way to adapt and continue somehow, but that is a long time and who knows what will happen? Find me here. LINK

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  3. I guess I won't worry too much about 4.5 billion years from now. I've been trying to limit my worrying to the current day. That seems to be the only one I have much control over anyway, and even that is hard enough to manage some days. :)

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  4. Thanks for visiting Sue's Trifles I'll explore your blog further, when I have time.

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  7. All this talk of things going belly up in 4.5 billion years from now or in the not so distant future, makes me wonder why? Is there a narrative I'm missing or is it just the way it was all supposed to be. A short post but with so much pondering packed in it.
    Y is for Yellow

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  8. That is a lot of fuel burning per second, Sage! Glad humans are harnessing some of it with solar panels. In 4.5 billion years, hopefully we'll have evolved to be able to live in space or somewhere other than Earth. If not, well, I'm sure we tried...

    Emily | My Life In Ecuador | Yuletide at the Olón Orphanage

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  9. I wonder if we'll be coexisting with other species from other planets in the next billion years. So in 4 billion years we'll have another planet to move to when our sun burns out.

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  10. 4.5 billion years isn't long in the context of the universe.

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  11. Yay for our sun, even if it IS rapidly (in universe time) burning itself out!

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  12. I loved your sarcasm in this post. 4.5 billion years or so? Great. I'm good! ;)

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  13. Too many things going on in today's world to be concerned with the sun burning out. Plus, I'm an optimist. I figure by the time it happens we'll have figured out space travel and have found other planets with younger suns. Fun post!WeekendsInMaine

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  14. Hi Sage - thank goodness we've got 4.5 billion years to see us out - I think that will take me past my sell by date ... I'd love to hang around to see what else is going to be found out about the great huge space with diamonds in the sky out there ... but suspect not! Cheers and well done on all your zodiacal knowledge ... Hilary

    http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/z-is-for-zebra-zoo-and-zedland.html

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