The age of the Sun

This question often comes to everyone's mind when the Sun was formed. Will the sun destroy one day? How old is it? What would happen with earth when there was no sun? There are many such questions in the minds of people, which they want to know the answer. People get scared thinking what will happen to this earth if there is no sun. It is natural for people to think so, because earth gets light, energy, and heat from the Sun.

Plants make food with the help of sunlight and release oxygen which is very essential for human life. Just think if there is no sun, then the plants will die and if the plants are not there, oxygen will not be produced and humans will start dying. Absence of the Sun can cause catastrophe in the whole world.

When was the sun formed?

I read few articles and came to know that the Sun was formed about 4, 500, 000, 000 years ago, and will still live for next 5 billion years more. Technically, I don’t know how scientists detected the age of the Sun, but I have read here that they first found the age of the entire solar system, which helped in detecting the age of the Sun.

According to scientists, the entire solar system was formed at the same time, along with the Sun. I don’t know why they utilize other things in the solar system to find the age of the Sun. I think it is impossible to land or get closer to the surface of the Sun. So they look for other things in the solar system to detect the age of the Sun. However, NASA scientists have built the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft and sent it to space in 12 August, 2018 to get a closer idea about the Sun. It is the first spacecraft that have passed 11.6 million miles above the surface of the Sun. In the next perihelion which is going to happen in September the spacecraft will get even closer to the Sun. During this period, it will travel 8.3 million miles above from the surface of the sun, which will be the closest journey ever.

As per this article, the age of the Sun can be detected using various ways. As I have mentioned above that the entire solar system along with the Sun was formed at the same time, scientists look for the oldest things in the solar system to know when the sun was formed. You can see the oldest things in the museum. Few months ago I have visited Indian Museum where I saw several small and oldest stones. Though I don’t remember the exact figures, the age of those rocks were listed there. I remember one thing that I was surprised to see how old the stones were. So there are several things on earth that help scientists know the age of the Sun.

How was the Sun formed?

I think it is difficult to say but scientist believe that around 4.6 billion years ago the sun was formed by a nebula which consists of huge amount of dust and gas – mostly hydrogen and helium. When a dying star explode, it produces a large amount of dust and gas, forming some nebulae. A nebula collapsed when its own gravity start pulling together the dust and gas. Most of the material accumulate at the center of the cloud and form a new star. The sun was formed in the same manner.