How long will our sun burn?
William Harris
Updated on February 25, 2026
Stars like our Sun burn for about nine or 10 billion years. So our Sun is about halfway through its life. But don't worry. It still has about 5,000,000,000—five billion—years to go.
How long will the sun stay burning?
Astronomers estimate that the sun has about 7 billion to 8 billion years left before it sputters out and dies. One way or another, humanity may well be long gone by then.What year will the sun die?
Eventually, the fuel of the sun - hydrogen - will run out. When this happens, the sun will begin to die. But don't worry, this should not happen for about 5 billion years. After the hydrogen runs out, there will be a period of 2-3 billion years whereby the sun will go through the phases of star death.What will happen when the sun burns out?
“In this process of the sun becoming a red giant, it's likely going to obliterate the inner planets … likely Mercury and Venus will be destroyed,” Blackman said. Earth may survive the event, but will not be habitable. Once the sun completely runs out fuel, it will contract into a cold corpse of a star – a white dwarf.Will the sun burn out one day?
The sun's death rattleAll good things eventually come to an end. And one day, about 4 billion or 5 billion years from now, the sun will burn through its last gasp of hydrogen and start burning helium instead.