Formation of the Sun and Planets
About 4.5 billion years ago, our very own Solar System began to form. According to Nola Redd (2017), a huge concentration of interstellar gas and dust came together due to gravity to form a molecular cloud. The cloud of matter was compacted by gravity into a sphere, becoming denser and denser. Eventually it collapsed in on itself, igniting nuclear fusion and beginning the star's life (Redd, 2017, para. 2). The leftover matter after the formation of the Sun made up the planets. The gas elements were more common driven and were far out from the Sun and the heavier elements were not as common and not driven as far out from the Sun. These elements condensed to form the outer gas giants and the inner rocky planets (Our Solar System and Earth, n.d.).
Earth
Earth, one of the inner rocky planets, formed about 4.5 billion years ago along with the Solar System. Being located in the perfect spot to sustain life, Earth is the only known planet to have life on it. It is located at just the right distance from the Sun, so that it is not extremely hot or cold. On top of that, it has a protective atmosphere and liquid water, making it perfect for life. Life is what makes Earth special from every other known planet. Stephanie Pappas says, "Some scientists have claimed to see evidence of life in 3.8-billion-year-old rocks from Akilia Island, Greenland" (Pappas, 2017, para. 3). With life being around, on Earth, for somewhere around for 3.8 billion years, it has evolved from it's original basic single cell organisms to complex and advanced organisms. Eventually life on Earth will die out in around 2 billion years or so due to the Sun's growth, making Earth no longer at a perfect distance from the Sun (Parry, 2013, para. 2). Along with life on Earth, the planet will go along with the rest of the Solar System when the Sun dies.
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Death of the Solar System
Eventually the Solar System will come to an end, but not quietly. In about 5 billion years from now the Sun will run out of hydrogen to burn and will start burn its helium core, which will make the the Sun much larger and hotter, turning it into a red giant. In a 2008 study by astronomers Klaus-Peter Schröder and Robert Connon Smith they estimated that the Sun will expand 108 million miles out, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and Earth (Emspak, 2016). The Sun will be in in this red giant phase for about 2 billion years, expanding and contracting because of its unstable helium fuel. Once the helium runs out the Sun will collapse on itself due to gravity and become a dense white dwarf. White dwarfs are tiny white stars that are heated by compression. When the Sun collapses it will leave the outer layers behind because they are loosely attached, creating a planetary nebula. As stated in National Geographic: White Dwarfs, "Eventually—over tens or even hundreds of billions of years—a white dwarf cools until it becomes a black dwarf, which emits no energy" (White Dwarfs, n.d.). At this point the Sun is no more than a dead corpse and the planets of the Solar System were either vaporized by the Sun or rogues wandering the Universe with no orbit.