"The Once and Future Sun" Ron Cowen, in Science News (Mar. 26,1994), 1719 N St. N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20036.
The sun's extinction may not be one of humankind's more pressing concerns, but the star that gives us life appears, like today's baby boomers, to be approaching middle age. At about 4.5 billion years of age, it is more than one-

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third of the way through its expected life span.
Like a baby boomer, the sun is going to get
fatter, but it's also going to get b...