Jack William Bell's Journal: You won't need that tube of SPF 10,000,000 sunblock!

Now scientists are saying that the Earth will not be destroyed by the Sun when it runs out of fuel and expands past the Earth's orbit. It seems that, as the Sun turns into a Red Giant, the Earth's orbit will also grow outward from the expanding solar behemoth. Hint: The Sun's gravity weakens...

Boy am I relieved! Quote from the article: "Don't panic." They didn't mention anything about carrying a towel though.

Orbit change

[nadam]

I don't know much about this, but let's say the sun's change in gravity goes rather quickly. Wouldn't that make the orbit of the earth change to a more eliptic orbit that takes the earth back to its original position on a regular basis?

Or is the change in gravity slow enough to allow the earth to gradually move to a bigger almost circular orbit?