Is THIS how the world will end? Scientists warn our solar system could be ... trends now
We all know the end of the world will come eventually - but what exactly will this look like?
In a new study, scientists have warned that Earth's demise could be even more violent and chaotic than we thought.
Our planet will be swallowed by our expanding sun, according to researchers from the University of Warwick.
Meanwhile, other planets in the solar system will be 'crushed and ground to dust'.
Thankfully, there's no need to panic just yet, as the scientists say this will likely happen in around six billion years.
Scientists say that the solar system may one day be destroyed by the sun as it swallows up the Earth and grinds other bodies into dust. Luckily for us, scientists think there is another 6 billion years before this happens
Stars like our sun generate light and heat by crushing hydrogen atoms into helium under the enormous forces of gravity.
However, all stars only have a limited amount of hydrogen, and when this starts to run out, the forces that keep the star stable are tipped out of balance.
Starting in about five billion years, our sun will burn through the hydrogen in its core, before ballooning outwards to more than 200 times its original size as it starts to burn helium in its outer layers.
While some massive stars explode into supernovae as they collapse, our star is small enough to simply die out as it eats the last of its nuclear fuel.
When this happens in about six billion years, it will leave behind a white dwarf: an ultra-dense remnant of the sun's core, glowing with residual heat as it slowly cools.
These stellar cores can have as much mass as the sun but be no larger than the Earth, giving them an extremely powerful gravitational field.
Scientists say that when our sun becomes a white dwarf star in six billion years, its gravitational pull will be so strong that some asteroids and even Jupiter's moons could undergo 'shredding' and be ground to dust
As the Sun runs out of hydrogen it will start to expand to become a red giant (artist's impression pictured) which will swallow the Earth
Professor Boris Gaensicke of the University of Warwick said: 'The sad news is that the Earth will probably just be swallowed up by an expanding Sun, before it becomes a white dwarf.'
However, less is known about what
