Formation and evolution of the Solar System apart by tidal interactions. Afterwards, all that will remain of the Sun is a white dwarf, an extraordinarily dense object, 54% its original mass but only the size of the Earth. Initially, this white dwarf may be 100 times as luminous as the Sun is now. It will consist entirely of degenerate carbon and oxygen, but will never reach temperatures hot enough to fuse these elements. Thus the white dwarf Sun will gradually cool, growing dimmer and dimmer. As the Sun dies, its gravitational pull on the orbiting bodies such as planets, comets and asteroids will weaken due to its
Sun and Moon (Middle-earth) Sun and Moon (Middle-earth) The fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien of Middle-earth fame included Earth's sun and moon for the cosmology of his myths of Arda. These astronomical bodies appear in various versions of "The Silmarillion", a history of a world, called Middle-earth populated by Elves and other fantastic creatures as well as Men. A version of "The Silmarillion", edited by the author's son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien, was posthumously published in 1977. However the Sun and Moon already appear in the author's writings dating from the 1920s. The sun and moon in Tolkien's legendarium were described in