images

Earth's end - Artist view

by

Walter B. Myers/Novapix

Reference

t-glb99-99005

Date

2009-09-07

In about six billion years our sun is expected to dramatically expand and grow hotter as its helium core contracts and ignites the outer layers of hydrogen, eventually becoming a type of star called a "Red Giant."
In this image the Sun has just started its journey toward becoming a Red Giant, however the intense heat has already boiled off Earth's oceans and driven away most of the atmosphere leaving a lifeless, molten surface. The Sun will continue to bloom for the next few hundred million years until it fills the sky and eventually engulfs the Earth entirely.