Page 21 - SOLAR SYSTEM

98 /h about four billioh years,
ct 9ctlctctic collision will take place.
The Milky Way galaxy that includes our
Solar System will collide with neighbouring
Andromeda galaxy, although Earth and
the Solar System should survive.

When the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies
meet, they will merge together to form one
enormous new galaxy.

99 /lb01Jt five billioh
yectr9 -rrom now, the Sun
will run out or hydt-ogen
and other -ruels it needs.
Nuclear fusion will stop. The
sun will swell up into a
massive red giant star and
cool down.

The red giant Sun will be over ZOO
ttmes bigger than the Sun today - big
enough to swallow the closest planets,
perhaps including t:arth.

V ® ® The red giaht stCll'
will eventually blow away its
outer layers or 9cts. This will
leave a glowing halo of gas around
the star. The remaining star will then
shrink to become a tiny white dwarf.
The white dwarf will cool and fade
away over billions of years.

The cloud or gas that will surround the
shrinking Sun iS called a planetary nebula.