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Countdown · Earth → Sun

Time left until the Sun arrives

Earth won’t fall into the Sun. Instead, the Sun will come to us: as it ages, it will swell into a red giant, and its edge will reach Earth’s orbit. According to the Schröder & Smith model (2008), that happens in roughly 7.59 billion years.

7 590 000 000years
000days
00hours
00minutes
00seconds
000ms
First life: ~3.8B years agoGreat Oxidation Event: ~2.4B years ago
Sun's birth · 4.57 billion years agoElapsed 37,6%

By the model, the Sun closes in on Earth's orbit at an average of ~19.6 m per year (≈5.4 cm per day) — the real approach will sharply accelerate during the red-giant stage.

What happens along the way

  1. nowThe Sun is 4.57 billion years oldMidlife. The core quietly burns hydrogen, luminosity rising about 1% every 110 million years.
  2. in ~1 billion yearsOceans start boiling offThe Sun gets 10% brighter. A moist greenhouse effect carries water into the upper atmosphere, where UV light breaks it apart.
  3. in ~5 billion yearsCore hydrogen runs outThe Sun leaves the main sequence and begins slowly swelling into a subgiant.
  4. in ~7.5 billion yearsRed giantIts radius grows ~250-fold. Mercury and Venus are consumed. The Sun loses mass and Earth’s orbit drifts outward — but not enough.
  5. in ~7.59 billion yearsEarth inside the SunTidal drag pulls the planet down into the star’s thin outer envelope. That’s where the timer ends.