End of Earth

[Ali13]

The earth is most definitely going to end because of the sun's nova, and then the black hole's explosion, and then the crash of Andomeda. Is there a way of survival for human beings and the oher animal and plant species?
My idea is to research for a planet in Andromeda, on which the climate and atmosphere is perfect for us. Is this idea good? What are he flaws?

 

[Alishia]

people are constantly researching the Andromeda galaxy. yes, planets have been spotted, but its much too far away to know if we would be able to survive on the planets. right? its a great idea definitely, but its not simple. im not an expert, but it seems logical.

 

[Ali13]

cant the astronauts improve the spaceships.

 

[MeteorWayne]

The earth is most definitely going to end because of the sun's nova, and then the black hole's explosion, and then the crash of Andomeda. Is there a way of survival for human beings and the oher animal and plant species?
My idea is to research for a planet in Andromeda, on which the climate and atmosphere is perfect for us. Is this idea good? What are he flaws?

The sun will not nova, it will never be massive enough. It will not form a black hole, again, not massive enough. The "crash" of the Andromeda galaxy will likely have no effect at all on what's left of the solar system. The earth will probably become unsuitable for life in 1 or 2 billion years due to the increasing energy output of the sun. At that point the only means for survival will be to get the heck out of here and find somewhere else to live, or find a way to move the earth's orbit outwards...but that will only work for a few more billion years. After 5 billion years, the sun will become a white dwarf and we'd better find a new home.

 

[Ali13]

thanks for the paraphrasing, i guess :S

 

[MeteorWayne]

people are constantly researching the Andromeda galaxy. yes, planets have been spotted, but its much too far away to know if we would be able to survive on the planets. right? its a great idea definitely, but its not simple. im not an expert, but it seems logical.

No planets have been spotted in the Andromeda galaxy. It's 2.5 million light years away.

ALL exoplanets have been found around stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

 

[bdewoody]

Hopefully, long before the earth dies mankind will have discovered/developed the means to get to other suitable planets that we are sure to find circling other stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. That is if we don't destroy ourselves first. If we do travel to other stars where there are liveable planets we will most likely take with us the seeds of plants that will be needed to provide food and whatever animals we can to populate a world. Or we may find planets with plants and animals that we can adapt to our needs.

 

[SpaceTas]

Even when the Andromeda and Milky Way "collide" the stars mostly pass by a long way away from each other. The orbits about their galaxy cores will get changes, but no effect on the planet orbits. Now the gas in each galaxy will be heated up, and dark clouds will interact. The latter would trigger a busrt of star formation and probably more planets.


Note: There is a search for planets in the Andromeda galaxy via pixel microlensing. There is a tentative detection.

 

[neilsox]

These posts are mostly good info. We need to work up gradually, and steadily to lofty goals. We are safe from supernova, black hole jets, GRB = gamma ray busters (for perhaps the next million years) but a sizable portion of Earth may be sterilized before we are prepared. There are hundreds of possible disasters, but most are low probability, or will mostly impact only a few hundred square miles. Neil

 

[js117]

people are constantly researching the Andromeda galaxy. yes, planets have been spotted, but its much too far away to know if we would be able to survive on the planets. right? its a great idea definitely, but its not simple. im not an expert, but it seems logical.

No planets have been spotted in the Andromeda galaxy. It's 2.5 million light years away.

ALL exoplanets have been found around stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

This articles say they have spoted planets in the Andromeder galaxy. ( maybe )

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... xy-2009-06

 

[MeteorWayne]

Thanx js117!

 

[MrUniverse]

The earth will probably become unsuitable for life in 1 or 2 billion years due to the increasing energy output of the sun. At that point the only means for survival will be to get the heck out of here and find somewhere else to live, or find a way to move the earth's orbit outwards...but that will only work for a few more billion years. After 5 billion years, the sun will become a white dwarf and we'd better find a new home.

The sun's energy output is increasing. Way long ago the sun was smaller and dimmer. In the future it will be larger and hotter.

However, Earth may not be doomed at that point. We may well be advanced enough technologically to solve that. What about a partial sun-shade? Or maybe pumping massive amounts of some benign particulate into the upper atmosphere.

I have read that plate tectonics on Earth may end in around a billion or two billion years, causing the carbon cycle to end. No more carbon dioxide from volcanoes means no more plants and no more people, right? Maybe not. What about lenses in orbit to focus sunlight on carbon rich rock deposits, thus vaporizing them and out-gassing carbon dioxide?

I have read of theories that postulate our core could come to a stop in as little as 10,000 years. No spin in core means no magnetic field and thus the solar and cosmic radiation could fry us, right? Well, there's got to be a better solution than wrapping Earth in superconducting cables and powering them up to make artificially a magnetic field, and I'm sure we will come up with one we can implement ten millennia from now.

Maybe, when the sun enters the red giant, we'll be smart and powerful enough to move our planet farther out from the sun.
Or maybe by then we'll be capable of stopping that phase in the sun's life cycle. I believe Martyn J. Fogg has written about that. Removing some of the sun's mass or mixing it up may extend the sun's life significantly.

By then we may not even want to bother as I'm sure we'll have spread throughout the galaxy, maybe farther. :mrgreen:
That is of course if we are still around. Or greatest danger is ourselves. Well, that and entropy I guess.

 

[crazyeddie]

Maybe, when the sun enters the red giant, we'll be smart and powerful enough to move our planet farther out from the sun.
Or maybe by then we'll be capable of stopping that phase in the sun's life cycle. I believe Martyn J. Fogg has written about that. Removing some of the sun's mass or mixing it up may extend the sun's life significantly.

By then we may not even want to bother as I'm sure we'll have spread throughout the galaxy, maybe farther. :mrgreen:
That is of course if we are still around. Or greatest danger is ourselves. Well, that and entropy I guess.

Assuming we haven't killed our species off from polluting our environment or from a nuclear war, I think the simplest solution to the "End of Earth" problem is migration......first to Mars and the outer solar system, then to artificial space habitats, and eventually to interstellar colonies. Even a star only somewhat smaller and cooler than our sun will last for many billions of years longer on the main sequence. As long as we maintain high technology, we can cope with almost any problem entropy throws at us....for a good long while, anyway!

 

[csmyth3025]

The dinosuars wandered our planet for about 160 million years - enduring many calamities along the way, I'm sure. We've been around (starting with just a hint of technology) for about 10,000 years. Most of what we consider real scientific and technological advancement has occurred in the last 400 years or so. This advancement has progressed more and more swiftly during this time.

Given our history, it seems reasonable that in the next 1,000 years we will probably populate other planets (or moons) in our solar syatem. It's also very possible that in 1,000 years we may build "generational ships" to go to the nearest stars. Perhaps these ships may be automated and contain passengers that are frozen (like the tree frogs that are frozen in the winter and then thaw out in the spring).

Chris

 

[Stellar_Optimist]

The earth will probably become unsuitable for life in 1 or 2 billion years due to the increasing energy output of the sun. At that point the only means for survival will be to get the heck out of here and find somewhere else to live, or find a way to move the earth's orbit outwards...but that will only work for a few more billion years. After 5 billion years, the sun will become a white dwarf and we'd better find a new home.

This is, of course, assuming that we are even still on this planet in a billion years. We may well have either moved on to another star system or become extinct by that point. It seems that major mass extinctions in Earth's history follow a trend of about 50 to 100 million years or so. The next mass extinction could happen in another 40 million years, an it could be humans that die off, at least those that are still left on Earth. Bear in mind that I'm not just talking about a comet or meteor collision causing this extinction, there could be dozens of different causes that we may not even have considered yet.

 

[yevaud]

Stellar_Optimist: Just an FYI, but when Astronomers state the probabilities of an Earth-killer occurring once every 100 million years, it doesn't mean 100 million years have to pass before it occurs. It could be 40 million years from now; it could be tomorrow.

 

[Couerl]

It can't happen tomorrow, it can happen on my 110th birthday though. :ugeek:

 

[Stellar_Optimist]

Stellar_Optimist: Just an FYI, but when Astronomers state the probabilities of an Earth-killer occurring once every 100 million years, it doesn't mean 100 million years have to pass before it occurs. It could be 40 million years from now; it could be tomorrow.

I am aware of that, just generalizing for the sake of argument.

 

[neilsox]

If the Earth warms 10 degrees c = 18 degrees f in a few billion years, most of the tropics and temperate zones will have dangerous temperatures at least occasionally, but the polar regions will be comfortable, but mostly underwater. With advanced technology and smart planning our planet will likely still be capable of supporting 13 billion humans = twice the present population, but perhaps just barely. If Mars warms by the same amount much of the region near the equator will have comfortable temperatures and a bit more atmosphere = still not enough atmosphere for humans. Crater bottoms at the poles of Mercury and Earth's moon will still be habitable, but dangerous and not self sufficient.
Cloud top habitats of Venus will get too hot to remain practical with a 10 degree c = 18 degree f temperature rise. There are other considerations other than temperature, but advanced technology has at least a shot at adapting. Neil

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Niel- Just because you have an abundance of firewood, is no reason to build a fire bigger than your needs.

IOWs, just because we (and the Earth) could support 13 billion people, doesn't mean that we would want to, or that it would be wise to tax the planet that much. People are already fighting over fresh water and other basic resources. Why would you want to compound the problem by doubling the human population?

 

[amshak]

The Earth would end when the end of the sun takes place , but thats about billion of years from now. The sun grows bigger and bigger to red Gaint And then to white and then black Dwarf as said by Meteor Wayne . Probebly The end of the Earth takes place before the end of the sun. If you Go back to the history, the some astronomers observed that some astroyed had fallen to Jupiter. Only a dot could be seen. But Jupiter is many times bigger than Earth .Imagine If that same Astroyed crashed into Earth The Whole of the Earth Would have been destroyed Because IT was as big as Earth. The threath of the Astroyed could be the end of the Earth.Ptesent technology cannot some how blast it. The treath dosent end here. The near by Supernoval eXplotion , or the treath may be a BLACK HOLE. OR may be explosion of some nearby WHITE DWARF as I have heard in some news . SO BEWARE FRIENDS , Earth may not be a safest place. :roll:

 

[neilsox]

Hi amshak: As you suggested the Sun does not really end. The sun may already be getting bigger each year, but the change is presently too small to measure. The larger and hotter maybe measurable in about a billion years, but advanced beings can easily cope with a warmer Earth until about 5 billion years when the radius of our sun will be about 100 times greater. Earth's surface will be badly scorched, and perhaps all of earth will evaporate due to the high temperature if the 100 times radius lasts a million years. In the million years following the largest radius, the sun will shrink to about Earth size, so Earth (if we didn't evaporate completely) will be much colder than now, even though the white dwarf will be much hotter than the present visable surface of the sun. Observed from Earth, the white dwarf will look a lot like Venus does now, but with a blue tint. It will take about a million years for the white dwarf to cool one degree c, much longer to cool one degree c when the white dwarf is red hot instead of white hot. This is so far in the future, many improbable things may happen first, so likely most white dwarfs will have some other fate, before they finally cool to black in perhaps a million times a million = 10E12 years.
All humans may die due to an asteroid hit later this year, but that is very improbable. More likely ten or so humans will die from an asteroid hit by 2999, perhaps all of them off planet, as Earth's atmosphere protects us from the small and medium size asteroids, which hit Earth much more often.
Yes a black hole may be about to pass close to Earth, and it could be the end of all humans. Likely we we would only get a few years warning and the only remedy is to evacuate Earth.
We know where the stars are that can go supernova, and they are all too far away to do serious damage to Earth's surface, so we are safe from super novas for the next 1000 years, likely longer. Humans in space may however be killed by a supernova 1000 or so light years away, but that is also very improbable. If our sun acquires a companion sun, then it could Nova after it becomes a white dwarf, but that is very low probability.
Hi Zen: Can you explain why the building of an excessive camp fire relates to what I posted in this thread? Also what most people regard as excessive has at least a slight chance of proving prudent, both on campfires and planetary defence. Neil

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hi amshak: As you suggested the Sun does not really end. The sun may already be getting bigger each year, but the change is presently too small to measure. The larger and hotter maybe measurable in about a billion years, but advanced beings can easily cope with a warmer Earth until about 5 billion years...Neil

I just love how you make stuff up without having the slightest idea of what you are talking about...

I find it really frustrating, too. It's not like you're a woo who makes up your own physics. You inhabit the real world. You write well, but it seems like you make no effort to check your facts before you state things.

The increasing output from the sun will make the earth too hot to live on in less than a billion years.

MW

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Hi amshak: As you suggested the Sun does not really end. The sun may already be getting bigger each year, but the change is presently too small to measure. The larger and hotter maybe measurable in about a billion years, but advanced beings can easily cope with a warmer Earth until about 5 billion years...Neil

I just love how you make stuff up without having the slightest idea of what you are talking about...

I find it really frustrating, too. It's not like you're a woo who makes up your own physics. You inhabit the real world. You write well, but it seems like you make no effort to check your facts before you state things.

The increasing output from the sun will make the earth too hot to live on in less than a billion years.

MW

You're one to talk. Where do you get this knowledge and idea that the "Sun will make the Earth too hot to live on in less than a billion years"? Are you saying that all the yellow, G-2 Class main-sequence stars out there that are comparable to the Sun's mass increase to such intensity after 5.8 or so billion years that anything within one AU is going to get fried?

Can you post some links or something to back this up?

And even if it is true that the increasing intensity of the Sun will make the Earth uninhabitable in "less than a billion years", so what? Does that give us 800 million or 900 million years?

How long have mammals existed on this planet? 90 million years? How about humans and their proto-ancestors? A paltry 5 or maybe 7 million years?

 

[MeteorWayne]

You're one to talk. Where do you get this knowledge and idea that the "Sun will make the Earth too hot to live on in less than a billion years"?

Even a 5% increase in solar output would raise the surface temperature 10 or more degrees C. I'll get a link later

Are you saying that all the yellow, G-2 Class main-sequence stars out there that are comparable to the Sun's mass increase to such intensity after 5.8 or so billion years that anything within one AU is going to get fried?

In 5.8 billion years, earth will probably be inside the surface of the sun, so yes.

Can you post some links or something to back this up?

This is basic stellar evolution stuff, but yes, I'll find some later today when I have time.

And even if it is true that the increasing intensity of the Sun will make the Earth uninhabitable in "less than a billion years", so what? Does that give us 800 million or 900 million years?

How long have mammals existed on this planet? 90 million years? How about humans and their proto-ancestors? A paltry 5 or maybe 7 million years?

But he said the earth will be inhabitable for 5 billion years, not me. I said nothing about how significant a few hundred million years is.