Question: would there ever be a way to stop the sun from exspanding and eating the earth?

Damien Hall answered on 18 Jun 2011:

As far as I know, no – sorry! The Sun is a star – the only reason it looks so big compared with the stars is that it’s so much closer – and apparently that’s just something that stars do when they get old … If you look at the pictures taken by telescopes, sometimes they show it happening – though actually catching it on camera is something that makes astronomers very excited, I think!

Look at it this way, though: we may be close enough to the Sun to be in danger when it gets old and expands, but our life is only possible at all because we are just far enough from the Sun – any closer and we’d be too hot (like Mercury and Venus), any further away and we’d be too cold (like Jupiter, Saturn and the ones that are further out). Some people call the Earth a Goldilocks planet (‘not too hot, not too cold, just right’) because of that.

Also, when it happens you and I will be long gone! The Sun has about 5 billion years of fuel left, I think (so it’s only halfway through its lifespan at the moment).