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How do scientists know the age of the sun?

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How can I calculate the age of the sun using classical physics? I know it's estimated to have a life of about 10 billion years, but was this calculated? It requires a bit more than classical physics, but still, you can estimate the sun's lifetime from a very simple calculation. read more

The age of the sun was one of the big puzzles in astronomy around 1900. Once people figured out that energy was conserved, you had to have the energy of the sun come from somewhere. The first idea was that it came from gravity causes the the sun to shrink, and you can easily calculate that this gives you an age of the sun of about 30 million years. read more

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and animation studio Beakus join together to explain how Kepler and Newton’s laws help us figure out the weight of the sun, how the age of our solar system can be calculated by studying meteorites, and how that data helps us determine the sun’s age. read more

A star like our sun is calculated to have a total stable life-span of around 10 billion years; the sun is now a bit less than half that age (this age is very accurately determined from radioactive elements in meteorites), so we have another five billion years or so before we have to start looking for a new home. read more

It requires a bit more than classical physics, but still, you can estimate the sun's lifetime from a very simple calculation. First of all, if you want the current age of the sun (around 5 billion years) this number is determined from radioactive dating of objects in the solar system which are known to have formed around the same time as the sun, as stated in the answer to a previous question. read more

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