The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The evolution of a Sun-like star, as derived from ESA's Gaia mission data release 3, in the so-called Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
The Sun is illustrated at its current age of about 4.6 billion years, and the evolutionary pathway it will follow given that a star’s temperatures and luminosity varies with age as it burns through its fuel. Our Sun will reach a maximum temperature at approximately eight billion years of age, then it will cool down and move right along this diagram while also slowly increasing in size. It becomes a red giant at around 10-11 billion years of age, and then rapidly increases significantly in size. The end of the life of the Sun happens shortly after, where it will eventually finish as a cool dim white dwarf.
This gif is a clip from a longer animation – watch here.