The Sun's Life Cycle and Its Profound Impact on the Solar System

This essay delves into the life cycle of the Sun, a star whose nuclear reactions profoundly impact the solar system. The Sun, fueled by hydrogen fusion, emits energy vital for the planets, but its eventual depletion of hydrogen will lead to dramatic changes. The assignment outlines the Sun's main sequence phase, where hydrogen fuses into helium, releasing significant energy. It then details the Sun's transformation into a red giant as hydrogen is exhausted, leading to increased brightness, heat, and potential destruction of the Earth. The essay also references the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to study stellar evolution, categorizing stars based on luminosity, color, and temperature. The final stages, including the white dwarf phase, are discussed, highlighting the ultimate consequences for the solar system's environment and habitability. The essay emphasizes the long-term effects of these changes, including the impact on geographical distribution and climate of the solar system.

Running Head: IMPACT OF SUN LIFE CYCLE ON THE SOLAR SYSTEM
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Impact of Sun Life Cycle on the Solar System
Name
Institution

IMPACT OF SUN LIFE CYCLE ON SOLAR SYSTEM 2
The Sun is a star. Like all stars, the Sun has a life cycle characterized by a formation of
nuclear reactions that are highly sensitive. The reactions are gradual and Couse atmospheric
disturbances in planets environment. Sun uses hydrogen as a source of fuel that burns to release
energy supplied to the surrounding solar system. This lifespan began billion years ago, and it is
dated to continue several billion years to come. The death of the sun will occur when the supply
of hydrogen is depleted. The sun emits high levels of energy at gradual rate. After many years,
the geographical distribution relationship will be affected, and the climate of the solar system
will change both directly and indirectly. For example, change in solar heating, global warming.
Currently the sun life cycle is what is termed as main sequence, at this time, nuclear
fusion reaction occurs in its core fusing hydrogen to helium (Redd, 2018). As a result, huge
amount of matter is converted into solar radiation and a lot of watts of energy are produced.
However, the process will not continue forever as the amount of hydrogen in the central depletes
with time. Notably, the base shrinks, reducing the surface are of the sun that creates stronger
gravitational forces. High pressure generates inside the core, increasing the rate at which fusion
of the molecules occurs. The output of the Sun will increase brightness that results in a high level
of heat energy absorbed by the earth atmosphere (Sundermier, 2016). Rise in sun heat energy
will result in greenhouse effects, boiling of oceans, melting of ice caps and the atmosphere will
go dry permanently and by this time no life will be surviving on the planet.
With time, hydrogen gas will be exhausted, and accumulated helium will make the Sun
grow in size and become unstable. As a result, the Sun will have entered a Red Giant phase
where it is believed to increase large enough to encompass four orbits surrounding it. In that

IMPACT OF SUN LIFE CYCLE ON SOLAR SYSTEM 3
event, the Sun will reach its final stage where the core will ignite violently, and conversion of
mass to carbon occurs. Sun becomes unstable and starts losing mass with luminous and
brightness increasing gradually (Ahrens, 2012). At this point, the Sun will entirely leave the
atmosphere inhospitable for life.
A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H-R) is an instrument used to study the evolution of the
star at a different stage. H-R diagram is used by astronomers to categorise giants above the cloud
according to their spectral type, luminosity, colour, and temperature emerging at a different step
in evolution. Therefore, the HR diagram is classified into three regions (Schmitt & Basu, 2015).
Firstly, the main sequence dominates most of the HR diagram where the star spends most of its
time burning hydrogen into helium producing Morgan - Keenan luminosity class. Secondly,
supergiant and red giant occupy the region above the main sequence. At this stage, the Sun has
exhausted hydrogen and start burning helium, reducing surface temperature, and increase
luminosity that results in increased size (Schmitt & Basu, 2015). Lastly, the white dwarf star is
found in the lowest side of the HR diagram, which is the final stage that characterizes hotness of
the Sun and very low luminosities due to small size.
When the Sun shrinks back down to a white dwarf, the life-giving light will dissolve and
supernovae from more giant stars could present other habitability issues. Otherwise, the drastic
change in the life cycle of the sun continues to add more harm to the solar system environment.

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References
Ahrens, C. D. (2012). Meteorology today: an introduction to weather, climate, and the
environment. Cengage Learning.
Redd, N.T. (2018). Red Giant Stars: Facts, Definition & the Future of the Sun. space. Com.
Retrieved from https://www.space.com/22471-red-giant-stars.html.
Schmitt, J. R., & Basu, S. (2015). Modelling the asteroseismic surface term across the HR
diagram. The Astrophysical Journal, 808(2), 123.
Sundermier, A. (2016). The Sun will destroy earth sooner than you might think. BI science alert.
Retrieved from: https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-here-s-how-the-sun-will-
eventually-destroy-earth
.