Observing the Sun's Last Days from Earth

A while ago, all the way back in August, a question came up about Red
Giants and earthlike planets. As part of the discussion, I provided a
reference to Scientific American, but I didn't have the complete article
with me at the time.

Here, from page 56 of the July 2004 issue, from the article "The
Extraordinary Deaths of Ordinary Stars", is some detail:

- The sun will swell to the size of Earth's present orbit
- Mercury and Venus will be burned up
- Earth will survive (sort of) because the sun will lose material,
reducing gravity enough that our cinder will be in a new, larger orbit
- You won't see much else than the sun: "As one edge sets in the west,
the other will begin to rise in the east".
- Once the sun moves on to white dwarf mode, the earth will be covered in
a cloud of rock plasma from the ultraviolet radiation.
- Then when the sun goes to cinder mode, the earth will be thoroughly
frozen.

Thread included my msg at
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.space.policy/msg/2427ad6391214fdd

/dps

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