Mars and Venus will definately be engulfed when the sun sheds its outer layers. The earth is right on the projected border of being vaporized. It is more likely the surface will be incinerated and the oceans boiled away. Not sure if the earth has a receding orbit from the sun, but I do recall the moon is receding from earth orbit at 38mm p/yr (i could be wrong). I would imagine after the "death" of the sun, the earth's orbit will recede, but it will be too late. Unless, of course, we can use a large enough asteriod to give us periodic gravity assists to pull us away. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>