As a veritable thermonuclear plant, mainly constituted of hydrogen in an ionised form, the Sun emits more energy in one single second than humans have consumed since the beginning of civilisation. Its mass, equivalent to 330 000 times that of the Earth, places it in the category of light stars and clearly marks out its future. At the end of a transformation phase lasting 10 billion years, the Sun will dilate, until it reaches the orbit of the Earth. In its final phase, all that will remain is a solid star the size of the Earth, known as a white dwarf. Its density will then be gigantic: one ton per cm3!
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