this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
699 points (97.8% liked)
Memes
52975 readers
926 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It actually won't explode, just implode. The process of becoming a red giant is quite gradual even by cosmological standards, taking about a billion years.
I'd always kind of assumed the sun would hit some point of not having enough fuel to sustain the fusion reactions and everything going to hell pretty quickly, but I suppose it does make sense that it's a slow process.