What will happen to Earth after the Sun dies - scientists answer

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have found that the Solar System could lose stability and disintegrate about a billion years after the Sun turns into a white dwarf. This is billions of times faster than previous forecasts. At an early stage, the expanding Sun will engulf Mercury, Venus, and Earth, while Mars will survive.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have presented new calculations according to which the Solar System could lose stability and disintegrate about a billion years after the Sun turns into a white dwarf. This is billions of times faster than previous forecasts, which gave the giant planets about a quintillion years of stability. The scientists studied how the Sun's mass loss will affect Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune after the star first becomes a red giant and then a white dwarf. At an earlier stage, the expanding Sun will engulf Mercury, Venus, and Earth, while Mars, according to the forecast, will survive. Previously, it was thought that after mass loss, the orbits of the outer planets would double in size, maintaining stability. The new calculations show that the cooling and shrinking of the star will not be as smooth as assumed, leading to gravitational instability.