Sun has 5 billion years left: Nobel laureate

Madrid, April 24 (IANS/EFE) The universe will continue expanding and the objects which it is composed of will move apart faster, causing stars, such as the Sun, to become fainter, although in the case of the Sun this will not happen for “more than 5 billion years”, Nobel laureate in physics Brian Schmidt said.

The US-born astrophysicist, who lives in Australia, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 along with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter for discovering that the universe is accelerating.

Schmidt spoke with reporters about his research on the universe before delivering an address, “The Accelerating Universe”, at Spain’s Fundacion BBVA.

The greatest challenge for scientists today is figuring out the “dark energy” of which nearly 70 percent of the universe is made, Schmidt said.

–IANS/EFE