Our solar system has been around for 4.6 billion years. While that sounds like a long time, it’s just a blip in the 13.8 billion-year story of the universe. And one day, the solar system will cease to exist.
But when will the solar system end? And how will it die out? The answers to those questions depend on how we define the death of the solar system.
The solar system consists of eight planets, several dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and billions of asteroids, comets and meteoroids. The exact boundaries of the solar system are subject to debate, but there are three main candidates: the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy objects beyond Neptune; the heliopause, where the sun’s magnetic field ends; and the Oort cloud, a theoretical icy cloud lying beyond both the Kuiper Belt and the heliosphere. And, of course, at the center of it all, the sun is keeping it all together with its immense gravity.
“Writer Fuel” is a series of cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration.
