How long is the sun going to last?

Stars the size of our sun generally have enough fuel (hydrogen) to burn for about ten billion years...our sun is only about 4.5 Billion years old so we are good for awhile.

By looking at the rate that the sun uses up its fuel, and looking at how other stars survive, scientists have caluculated that the sun is going to keep shining for around another 5 billion years. To get there, in a few billion years the sun will first become a red giant. As it expels the last of it's fuel, other civilizations might see it become a planetary nebula. And as it cools and the nebula grows, the sun will shrink to a white dwarf.

In about 5 billion years the sun will expand to about 700 times it's size engulf our entire solar system, collapse back upon itself and become a black hole. Meanwhile man will destroy this planet long before that. The Detroit Lions may reach the Superbowl two weeks after that.

Depending on the type of burn( 1st degree,2nd degree,3rd degree) varies how long it will last. If its a first degree brunto the epidermis can last maybe a few days no more than a week(typical sun burn). A second degree burn is deeper down in the skin to the dermis. It can last for 2-3 weeks time(no sunscreen applied and major exposure to sun). A third degree burn can leave scrs so if you are having majOr sensitivity and scabs are startig to appear from peeling skin, go to a doctor. A third degree burn doesnt alwaya happen with sunburn( usually sunburn if multiple days in a row with no syscreen applied). IT can come from heating pads. My dad was once using a hearing pad for his bursitis and he left it on tOo long. The skin was penitrated and he had a third degree bUrn. So just be carefull with heat. It can "Burn" apply aloe to the burned area to reduce body heat and calm the sting! Get better soon!

As it is, on what is called Main Sequence, another 4 - 6 billion years.

Then it will start to expand expand, becoming a Red Giant (frying Mercury, Venus the Earth and Mars in varying degrees in the process). Then it will lose its outer layers and contract again to form a white dwarf. As its fuel runs out, it will slowly dim and stop shining, at which point it would be called a black dwarf. Of course by this point there will be no-one there to call it anything.

In 2012 the sun will explode creating a supernova that will throw death rays unto us, melting our bodies quite painfully, we will then be assimilated into the great collective or hive mind of the sun which will then condence and become a ball of death searching for organisms and destroying their planets and assimiliating their species.

The real answer is we don't know. You see, we have yet to observe and chronicle the entire life of a star, so our predictions are just estimated guesses really, just as mine was.

About another 5 billion years.

well it's about TIME someone asked this! see, if the sun were an EnergyStar rated FLOURESCENT it would last like 100 gazillion years, but pffft! that idiot God had to save a few shekels and went with a regular cheapo GE filament-based! great! thanks, GOD! now we're all gunna freeze in ...oh...about 6 Billion years (give or take a few weeks)

wow some people think in very limited spacings...

The sun will outshine anything that lives on this planet for BILLIONS OF YEARS to come...it has no chance of extinguishing, dimming, any such thing in the span of our human existance, save a natural astronomical catastrophe.

It will be around for a LONG time, its got at least a couple more million years before the big star fades out.