[Meghunter99 (OP)]

OK, I have a question. I was wondering about what will happen to the planets in our Solar System after our Sun shrinks into a White Dwarf, excluding Mercury, Venus, and Earth?

Will Mars, Jupiter, etc drift out into Space, or will something else occur?

Thanks!

[TECHFACTOR]

The sun could become other things besides A white dwarf;like A neutron star or A blackhole it could go supernova and blow everything in our solarsystem to smithereens! As far as becoming A whitedwarf I am not sure what the gravitational perimeter would be;but there are some very educated people on this forum;such as SoulSurfer,DoctorBeaver,Paul and Sophiecentaur that can help you more than I. "Welcome to the forum;good hunting." TECHFACTOR:OUT     

[Bikerman]

Err..no the Sun could not become a black hole and it will not go supernova.
We understand pretty well the requirements for a black hole and our sun doesn't have nearly enough mass. Observation and theory point to the fact that the sun will go through a red-giant phase and finally settle down as a white dwarf.
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/astro/redgia.html

Now, as the Sun goes through these phases there will be a loss of mass and therefore the orbits of the planets will change. Mercury and Venus will probably be crisped and absorbed during the Red Giant phase. The fate of earth is a bit more speculative - it could be engulfed during this phase, or the loss of solar mass could mean that the earth will drift further away in orbit and avoid being completely engulfed.

[TECHFACTOR]

OK Bikerman I must be behind on my text.But thanks for the info I shall give it more study.Where might I read more about this? (On the web.) TECHFACTOR:most curious???

[DoctorBeaver]

Go here and you'll see a link to the full document in PDF format.

Or there's this one.

[Meghunter99 (OP)]

I am well aware of what will happen to the Sun, as well as Mercury and Venus, however, I was wondering what will happen to the OTHER planets.

[Mr. Scientist]

OK, I have a question. I was wondering about what will happen to the planets in our Solar System after our Sun shrinks into a White Dwarf, excluding Mercury, Venus, and Earth?

Will Mars, Jupiter, etc drift out into Space, or will something else occur?

Thanks!

When the sun has cooled down, it will most likely become a black dwarf. The gravitational influence will weaken drastically, but the planets will remain in orbit, but in darkness forever.

[Mr. Scientist]

Also, the first three planets from the sun will be consumed by its fiery gulf when it expands to be a red giant.

[demsenate2006]

"Err..no the Sun could not become a black hole and it will not go supernova."
Bikerman, I feel that we should consider Techfactor's ideas more instead of immediately dismissing them. You have no evidence for your proposed theories other than some website that some one put on the internet.

The sun's fate could be one of many, we just don't know enough yet. The sun could do nothing spectacular and just burn out like a match. Also keep in mind that the galaxy will collide with Adromeda in a few million years and the earth might be stripped away by another star.

For now let's assume that doesn't happen and concentrate on a solution to save earth:

We could push earth away by setting off ALL of our country's nuclear weapons in a place where no intelligent life lives at high noon. The powerful explosions would push the earth farther away from the sun giving us at least two benefits:
1. Puts earth into a safer orbit so it would be more immune from an exploding or expanding sun.
2. Cooler temperatures to counteract the permanent effects of man-made global warming.

Next question, which state should the military detonate the all nukes? Somewhere closest to the equator.

[syhprum]

The power of all the worlds nuclear weapons exploding would have a negligible effect on its orbit but would louse up the climate for quite a while.