The Earth is bound to be burnt to a cinder when the Sun approaches the end of its life, in about 5 billion years time, and becomes a “red giant” star (red and giant pretty much sums it up, actually).
But the world as we know it will probably end much sooner, either because people do something terrible to it or because Earth just naturally changes. In the four billion years Earth has existed, it has changed beyond human recognition: continents have moved around and seas been created and destroyed; the temperature has changed drastically; different forms of life have lived and died; and the atmosphere has become 20% oxygen (there wasn’t any oxygen in the beginning, and oxygen would have been poisonous to many of the earliest forms of life).
I’d only add that by ‘much sooner’, it’s not going to happen in the next few thousand (or even probably million) years. People are pretty powerful (and stupid) and we could easily wipe out much of the life that’s on the Earth, but it would still survive and new species would evolve given time. Cosmic accidents are unlikely, and the Earth will probably be around for a few billion years and hopefully with life on it (although maybe not people!).
Its sad to think that the earth has a natural lifespan! eek. I hope that as we learn more and more about life, science, space and technology that we can establish a stable life that means the earth can continue, even if the sun as we know it burns out.
So this is kind of a science fiction fantasy, but its so hard to predict what is going to happen in millions of years from now – what will people even look like!?
Hi bubble and friends,
The Earth is bound to be burnt to a cinder when the Sun approaches the end of its life, in about 5 billion years time, and becomes a “red giant” star (red and giant pretty much sums it up, actually).
But the world as we know it will probably end much sooner, either because people do something terrible to it or because Earth just naturally changes. In the four billion years Earth has existed, it has changed beyond human recognition: continents have moved around and seas been created and destroyed; the temperature has changed drastically; different forms of life have lived and died; and the atmosphere has become 20% oxygen (there wasn’t any oxygen in the beginning, and oxygen would have been poisonous to many of the earliest forms of life).
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Good answer from Edward!
I’d only add that by ‘much sooner’, it’s not going to happen in the next few thousand (or even probably million) years. People are pretty powerful (and stupid) and we could easily wipe out much of the life that’s on the Earth, but it would still survive and new species would evolve given time. Cosmic accidents are unlikely, and the Earth will probably be around for a few billion years and hopefully with life on it (although maybe not people!).
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Hi guys,
Its sad to think that the earth has a natural lifespan! eek. I hope that as we learn more and more about life, science, space and technology that we can establish a stable life that means the earth can continue, even if the sun as we know it burns out.
So this is kind of a science fiction fantasy, but its so hard to predict what is going to happen in millions of years from now – what will people even look like!?
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