HOW IT BEGAN:
"You know, the sun has always fascinated me. My planet didn't have as big a sun as yours does. Nobody has ever discovered my sun yet, because I'm in a galaxy a lot of light years away!
I did some research, and this is what I found out about the sun's history!"
The sun is very old, and we figure that it will keep burning for a long, long, time; for over five billion years it will give people light!
The sun is actually a huge star. Well, compared to us, it's huge. The only reason it seems so big is because it's so close to the earth. If you were to put a different star next to it, you would see that it's not as big as it seems.
The sun is about 4.55 billion years old. This is quite young, seeing that the universe is more that 15 billion years old! Scientists think that the sun (and some other planets) were made long ago from dust and gases, all in a swirling cloud.
In five billion years, it will get bigger by expanding and will cool down. The sun's color will also become redder. And guess what? It will be 100 times the size it is now! It will gulp up all the planets, even earth(!) and destroy all the life on earth. (I'm glad I won't be alive five billion years from now!)
Some of the crust of the sun will drift off into space slowly. In time, almost all the remaining bits of material will also disintegrate, so there will be nothing left except a tiny, hot core. (Well, tiny compared to the size it is now!)
ASTROMOE'S SAFETY TIP:
THE SUN'S LIGHT AND HEAT ARE SO STRONG, THEY CAN HURT YOUR EYES PERMANENTLY. NEVER, EVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITH NO PROTECTION, AND NEVER, CERTAINLY NEVER, LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE!!!