{"id":54099,"date":"2024-01-18T12:14:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T12:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dd10be32-3164-4ba0-a6c8-0eebd89499ff"},"modified":"2024-01-18T12:32:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T12:32:31","slug":"how-old-is-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-old-is-the-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"How old is the Sun?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How old is the Sun, and why is the Sun nearly the same age as planet Earth? <\/p>

By Russell Deeks\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 18 January 2024 at 12:14 PM<\/p>

\n\n

The Sun burst into life around 4.6 billion years ago, which makes it the same age as the Solar System as a whole and around half a billion years older than the Earth.<\/p>

That\u2019s because, with a few exceptions, planetary systems such as our own Solar System do generally form at the same time.<\/p>

Discover the biggest questions about the Sun<\/a>, how many Earths can fit in the Sun<\/a> and what will happen when the Sun dies<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <\/p>

How planetary systems form<\/strong><\/h2>
Artist\u2019s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc. Our Solar System may have looked like this in its infancy. Credit: ESO\/L. Cal\u00e7ada<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The formation of stars and planets is a long and complicated process with many different variables at play.<\/p>

But in the simplest terms, you start with a big cloud of dust and gas in space.<\/p>

Over millions and millions of years, gravity<\/a> causes particles within this cloud to gather together in the centre.<\/p>

And as they do so, both pressure and temperature start to build up \u2013 the latter mostly the result of friction between colliding or abrading particles.<\/p>

Eventually, the once loosely-assembled cloud will have flattened out into a disc with a hot, dense clump of matter in the centre.<\/p>

If that clump of matter gets hot and dense enough, nuclear fusion will start to occur, and a star will be born.<\/p>

\"An
An image of a protoplanetary disc around star HL Tauri. The dark rings could indicate newly-forming planets in orbit, pushing aside dust as they go. Credit: ALMA (ESO\/NAOJ\/NRAO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Remaining matter in the disc\u2019s outer regions will then clump together to form planets, and any remaining matter around THEM will likely clump together to form moons.<\/p>

Which is why the Solar System is the same age as the Sun<\/a> and only a little bit older than the Earth.<\/p>

Just as you, as Jonathan Swift famously put it, are \u201cas old as your tongue and a little bit older than your teeth\u201d!<\/p>

Do note, however, that this nice simple mechanism \u2013 the nebular hypothesis, first described in the late 18th<\/sup> Century by Immanuel Kant, among others \u2013 doesn\u2019t account for the distribution of every star and planet in the Universe.<\/p>

As planetary systems age, planets on their outer fringes can drift off into interstellar space to wander as rogue planets or, in some cases, be captured by the gravity of a different system altogether.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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