In 6-7 billion years, radiation from the Sun will spin and tear apart all major asteroids

A red giant is an intermediate stage of a star's existence. When the Sun runs out of nuclear energy

fuel, it will increase and become hugered giant and then sheds its outer layers. When this process is complete, all that will remain of the Sun is a small, super-dense core, which astronomers call a white dwarf.

In the process of becoming a red giant radiationThe sun will grow many times - as a result of this process, the YORP effect will occur. It consists in the fact that when the asteroid surface is heated by sunlight during the day and cools down during the day, the object gradually leaves its orbit and begins to quickly rotate around its axis if the shape of this object is far from spherical.

Researchers have built a model to testhow the YORP effect will affect asteroids during the transformation of the Sun into a red giant. Modulation showed that the luminosity will shine brighter with aging, the YORP effect will sharply increase, which will lead to catastrophic consequences for the Main asteroid belt. The transformation of the Sun into a red giant will lead to similar consequences for asteroids located tens of times further from the star than Neptune and Pluto.

"The strength of this effect for stars the size ofThe sun must be especially big. All analogues of our main asteroid belt will be completely destroyed, and this will happen in a very short time, less than a million years. And the only reason for the mass disappearance of all asteroids will be the light produced by these luminaries."

Dimitri Veras, lead author of the study

Earlier astronomers from the University of Iowa duringObservations of seismic vibrations in the bowels of two red giants revealed that the orbit of an exoplanet orbiting one of them is so small that it floats inside rarefied but hot outer shells of the star.