Earth’s final sunset predicted
New calculation predicts planet’s destruction in 7.6 billion years
"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice," wrote the poet Robert Frost. Astronomers, it turns out, are in the former camp.
A new calculation predicts that Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6 billion years, capping off a longstanding debate over whether the sun's gravitational pull will have weakened enough for Earth to escape final destruction or not.
Other theorists have predicted that our planet will fry as the sun expands in its old age. But the time estimates have varied by a couple billion years.
For full story please click here: Source
Well, on the bright side (no pun intended), we won't have to worry about living in darkness.
Full Version: Earth’s Final Sunset Predicted
QUOTE (colorless @ Feb 28 2008, 11:53 PM) 
Earth’s final sunset predicted
New calculation predicts planet’s destruction in 7.6 billion years
"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice," wrote the poet Robert Frost. Astronomers, it turns out, are in the former camp.
A new calculation predicts that Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6 billion years, capping off a longstanding debate over whether the sun's gravitational pull will have weakened enough for Earth to escape final destruction or not.
Other theorists have predicted that our planet will fry as the sun expands in its old age. But the time estimates have varied by a couple billion years.
For full story please click here: Source
Well, on the bright side (no pun intended), we won't have to worry about living in darkness.
New calculation predicts planet’s destruction in 7.6 billion years
"Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice," wrote the poet Robert Frost. Astronomers, it turns out, are in the former camp.
A new calculation predicts that Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6 billion years, capping off a longstanding debate over whether the sun's gravitational pull will have weakened enough for Earth to escape final destruction or not.
Other theorists have predicted that our planet will fry as the sun expands in its old age. But the time estimates have varied by a couple billion years.
For full story please click here: Source
Well, on the bright side (no pun intended), we won't have to worry about living in darkness.
It's actually been understood for a very long time that eventually, this will happen. It is not a mystery....and no one need worry about this, of course...it's an awfully long way off, and humanity might not even exist then...you're talking about 4000 times longer than humanity has existed in the most rudimentary form....
QUOTE (MID @ Mar 9 2008, 03:04 AM)
It's actually been understood for a very long time that eventually, this will happen.
Yes and no.
That the Sun will become a red giant at the end of its life is well understood. What was not know was exactly how far the Sun would expand. Some astronomers believed that, although the oceans would be boiled away and all life extinguished, the Earth itself may just survive the expansion, albeit as a cinder. Others believed that the Sun would expand a little further full engulfing the Earth and not even leaving a lifeless cinder behind. These latest calculations seem to confirm the latter fate for the planet rather than the former.
QUOTE (Waspie_Dwarf @ Mar 9 2008, 06:20 PM)
Yes and no.
That the Sun will become a red giant at the end of its life is well understood. What was not know was exactly how far the Sun would expand. Some astronomers believed that, although the oceans would be boiled away and all life extinguished, the Earth itself may just survive the expansion, albeit as a cinder. Others believed that the Sun would expand a little further full engulfing the Earth and not even leaving a lifeless cinder behind. These latest calculations seem to confirm the latter fate for the planet rather than the former.
That the Sun will become a red giant at the end of its life is well understood. What was not know was exactly how far the Sun would expand. Some astronomers believed that, although the oceans would be boiled away and all life extinguished, the Earth itself may just survive the expansion, albeit as a cinder. Others believed that the Sun would expand a little further full engulfing the Earth and not even leaving a lifeless cinder behind. These latest calculations seem to confirm the latter fate for the planet rather than the former.
Well...
Either scenario seems somewhat problematic for any life that happens to be around here when it happens, eh, Waspie? Once the sun begins to expand and it's energy changes, the climatic changes will probably dictate extinction...and eventually, when we're inside the expanding Sun, and the seasons no longer exist, I wonder what could be here living...
And interesting thing to contemplate...
QUOTE (MID @ Mar 10 2008, 01:05 AM)
I wonder what could be here living...
And interesting thing to contemplate...
And interesting thing to contemplate...
Indeed.
By then the human race will probably not exist in any form we would recognise. We will either be long extinct or, if we still survive, so far advanced and evolved that we would seem like gods to 21st century man.
If we are still around we certainly will not be confined to this grain of sand we call Earth, or even this small corner of the galaxy. I wonder if we will feel remose at the demise of the planet that was our point of origin, or even if we will remember it.
QUOTE (Waspie_Dwarf @ Mar 11 2008, 12:05 AM)
Indeed.
By then the human race will probably not exist in any form we would recognise. We will either be long extinct or, if we still survive, so far advanced and evolved that we would seem like gods to 21st century man.
If we are still around we certainly will not be confined to this grain of sand we call Earth, or even this small corner of the galaxy. I wonder if we will feel remose at the demise of the planet that was our point of origin, or even if we will remember it.
By then the human race will probably not exist in any form we would recognise. We will either be long extinct or, if we still survive, so far advanced and evolved that we would seem like gods to 21st century man.
If we are still around we certainly will not be confined to this grain of sand we call Earth, or even this small corner of the galaxy. I wonder if we will feel remose at the demise of the planet that was our point of origin, or even if we will remember it.
Thats almost poetic
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.