Lecture 40: The Once and Future Sun
How will the Sun evolve? The Sun is now a middle-aged, low-mass, Main\nSequence star in a state of hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium that has\nconsumed about half of the Hydrogen available for fusion in its core.\nWhat will its subsequent evolution be as its core runs out of Hydrogen?\nThis lecture describes our current state of understanding of the\nexpected evolution of the Sun, informed by a combination of\nstate-of-the-art solar models and stellar evolution codes, and data\ngathered from observations of nearby stars in our Galaxy. We will trace\nthe future history of the Sun from the present until it begins its final\nphase as a fading White Dwarf some 8 Billion years in the future. Along\nthe way, we'll also ask what will become of Earth.\nRecorded 2006 March 6 in 1008 Evans Laboratory on the Columbus campus of\nThe Ohio State University.