If our Sun became a red giant, approximately where might its edge reach?

Answer

Near the orbit of Venus

There is a vast volumetric difference between the expansion witnessed by a Sun-like star becoming a red giant versus the extreme expansion seen in a supergiant. When a star comparable in mass to the Sun exhausts its core hydrogen and expands into a red giant, its radius increases significantly, potentially reaching out to or near the orbit of Venus. For context, if the Sun were to become a supergiant (which it will not, due to insufficient mass), its size would be comparable to the orbit of Jupiter. The expansion to the Venusian orbit represents the typical extent for the lower-mass giant phase, achieved after core helium exhaustion initiates shell burning, causing significant, but not catastrophic, inflation relative to the potential sizes of true supergiants.

If our Sun became a red giant, approximately where might its edge reach?

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