michaelwmoss
New member
koban said:Based on what calculations? The current mass of the sun? The current rate at which it's depleting it's mass? Are you assuming that the current rate of reaction is a constant extrapolating back in time?
Based on it's current rate and assuming that rate to be constant, how much time do you think the sun has until it's energy is "used up"?
I sorta answered this in the last point. I will agree that there is very little likelyhood that the Sun's depletion rate is constant (Look at the recent CME's that happened a few years ago, essentially large "Belches" if you will coming off of the sun, bigger than normal)
There is also the possibly of an additional source of Helium for the Sun (Or even a constant form) that we haven't even been able to (Or may never) discover.
If we go by basic physics alone, eventually that energy should be finite and I would think that at least 1 million years would be long enough for that energy to be depleted.
Interesting conversation and field of topic none the less though