The life of a planet in space is not easy at all. Like humans, planets also have different stages of life. First, they are born, then they go through various changes for billions of years. Finally, they die. However, not all planets have the same lifespan. There is a huge difference between the lifespan of a planet like our Earth and that of planets orbiting a small star. So the question may arise in your mind, how long do most planets in space actually last?
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To understand the lifespan of planets, we first need to know how they are born. Sean Raymond, an astrophysicist at the University of Bordeaux in France, is researching the subject. He says that the story of the birth of planets is quite exciting. In space, young stars are surrounded by a huge sheet or disk of dust particles. A planet begins its journey as a very small dust particle. Then, over billions of years, these particles collide with each other and take on a huge shape.
Giant gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn began as huge balls of rock and ice. They then sucked in a lot of gas from the disk around their stars to form the giants they are today. Rocky planets like our Earth have also gone through this process. When the gas evaporates from the star’s surroundings, Earth-like planets form through violent collisions between larger planets and smaller rocky objects. However, scientists are still debating exactly how planets are formed. Sean Raymond said that the story of the birth of planets is quite exciting. Young stars in space have a huge sheet or disk of dust around them. A planet begins its journey as a very small dust particle.
However, what exactly is meant by the death or end of a planet is also complicated. “A planet survives until it is completely destroyed, that is true, but there is another side to it,” says Stanford University planetary scientist Matthew Reinhold. When a planet loses its familiar form or environment and completely changes, it can also be called a kind of death. That is, a planet may have had a special environment before. But when that environment changes to a completely different one, it can be said that the previous planet has died.
To clarify the matter, let’s take the example of our Earth. The life of the Earth actually depends on our Sun. The Sun is currently burning hydrogen gas in its core and converting it into helium. This process is what gives us light and heat.
Scientists have calculated that after about 5 billion years, the Sun’s hydrogen will run out. Then the Sun will slowly start to swell. As a result, the Sun will turn into a huge red giant.
Our Earth may taste death in several stages. First, when the Sun gradually starts to shine brighter, all the water in the Earth’s oceans will evaporate due to the intense heat. As a result, the Earth will no longer be habitable. Secondly, when the Sun turns into a huge red giant star, it can swallow the Earth completely. And if the Earth somehow survives, it may eventually become starless.
According to these calculations of scientists, the total lifespan of the Earth may be about 9.5 billion years. However, Matthew Reinhold has given a surprising piece of information. He said that our Earth will probably not live as long as most of the planets in space. The reason for this is our Sun. The Sun is a yellow dwarf star. But most of the stars in space are red dwarfs or ‘red dwarfs’. Which are much smaller and cooler than the Sun. These stars burn their fuel very slowly. Therefore, the planets orbiting these stars can survive for several trillions of years.
Even if the environment of a planet changes completely over time, its solid rock or core structure may survive. But over this long period of billions of years, the possibility of any major accident happening to the planet also increases. Maybe it collided with another planet. Or for some reason it got separated from its orbit.
Sometimes planets get separated from their parent stars. Then they start wandering alone in the emptiness of space. They are called ‘rogue planets‘ or wandering planets. At some point, they may even leave their own galaxy. What will be the final fate of that wandering planet will depend on the way in which the universe is ultimately destroyed.
Source: livescience.com
