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Researchers debate whether Earth will be swallowed by the sun as it expands into a red giant billions of years from now
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "A Solar Big Gulp".
David Appell is a freelance science writer based in Portland, Ore.
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53 Comments
Add CommentGood Day
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems that scientific specululations based on measurements at a
scale, so low, were always erratic and faild as theoretical basis.Thank you.
Well, I know I will be long gone by that point so I guess it doesnt really matter. I suspect the planet will be destroyed by a large asteroid long before that happens though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJiff
www.anon.cz.tc
....any miscalculation could mean extinction. Needless to say, more study is required....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo. We just have to accept our (species) mortality.
By then, humans will have terraformed Mars and we'll be living safely on the red planet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh please. The sun engulfing the earth is the least of our problems. We humans would be long gone by then. The more current issues are pollution, waste management, natural resources, erratic weather, all these that could destroy us in the next millenium or so...the sun destroying is nothing to worry about. But still, I would imagine all humans from all over the galaxy gathering billions of years from now on Mars, all witnessing the destruction of their home planet from once they came from...yes, I have an imagination.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy that time, we will have run out of energy on earth anyway, and our A.I descendants will have colonized the sun. Their major concern will be: is the Earth going to mess up the structures we have created to contain us in the solar body?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello, with every-one blaming global warming on human kind, when do we start to take into account the changes in temperature due to this effect? Now? 100 years, or 1000 years?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen are we going to account in our global warming models the effects due to the sun; rather than assuming that the sun's output does not change, and continue to blame 'Global Warming' totally on human activity?
I see the similar report long ago, maybe from here as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also believe our human, extinct or develop much quicker than that time scale.
We will definitely be a planet of space faring life forms (Colonized Many Other Worlds), or a planet only occupied by cock roaches (Nuclear Extinction), by the time the Sun goes Giant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe are talking about 7.6 Billion years here. Humanity as we know it have only evolved since the Summerian times (a few thousand years). We should hardly be concerned with what will happen to Earth this far in the future. I am pretty disheartened that scientists are wasting resources and time speculating this topic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMajor Kong,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, the Sun is _slowly_ increasing its output, but not at anything remotely like the pace needed to explain global warming. You're grasping at straws.
It might be useless wasting time speculating on such a topic, but it sure is fun! Sounds like really good material for a sci-fi novel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisscientists are not wasting resources or time on this kind of project. What exactly do scientists do? Do you think they, maybe, design dirigibles or blenders? They work with theoretical concepts as well as test their maths and conceptual skills along the way to developing ways to prove or substantiate either their own or other's evidence regarding natural phenomena. Astronomy has taken a front seat nowadays due to the recent abilities of earthlings to launch space probes and satellites and telescopes and so forth to determine more accurately processes that occur in the cosmos. IF all earth's life forms did was practical we would be refining the grindstones from our Dark Ages water driven mill. When a comment about wasting resources and time comes out I can only think that there are others who think that we should also not spend money and resources and time learning how to leave the earth and begin the exploration of our solar system. How unimaginative and pathetic. By the way, it is unlikely to require much more than a home based computer to analyze such data to conclude the future of the earth vis a vis the sun. It is not as if the writer had to pay out of his pocket for what scientists have done in this regard.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWake up, people. We're talking about something that is going to happen billions of years from now. Why worry about when our sun is going to kick the bucket when there are some more pressing concerns, like global warming or pollution, orthe fact that we humans are the ones killing Mother Earth, not the Sun?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI cant even imagine what it could be like then if we're still around, imagine being billions of years removed from the industrial revolution, we're in the low hundreds, the possibilities are literally endless
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf our species has not gone extinct by this time, it will surely have devised a method of interstellar - or even intergalactic - travel, and good ole Sol will be nothing more than a tiny point of light in the night sky for 99% of them. Earth will probably have been completely depleted of all useable resources billions of years before the sun becomes an issue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ Major Kong.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe DO know the effect the sun has on the earth. This is calculable and accounted for in the global warming figures. It simply is not a very big effect compared to CO2, methane, and other green house gasses. Please read the scientific reports...
Wasn't that an episode on Dr. Who?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, please. We don't even account for precipitation in our global warming models, but we have solar impact all figured out? Yeah, right. Apparently the climate modelers also forgot to account for shifting ocean currents, let alone being able to predict how they will change in response to changing planetary temperature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis whole thing is a joke. It's like a 5-year old pretending he understands the math behind a suspension bridge because he built a snake out of playdough
Well I believe that we as a human race will be extinct, before this happens. Mainly because were too clean, any germ we fear and create ways to kill it. Our chances to evolve will not come to because we have nothing affecting us to evolve.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA billion years is a long time ,long enough for us to in-case the earth in a protected shell and move it to another star.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are taking my comment out of context. My response pertains to this topic ONLY and not science in general. To the contrary I am very supportive of any science that betters humankind as a whole. Why else would I subscribe to this magazine!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAdditionally, I dont really care for your tone, I must've hit a nerve somewhere and out of respect for this board I will leave this be.
We're doomed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishahaha,expanding sun,solar wind-whoosh!!!whoosh!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou guys will become a laughing joke of science and very quickly ,like the flat earth society AND their PHD.S,if you continue to ignore the electric universe and PLASMA COSMOLOGY,which is TRUE astronomy.Is it because the rockefellers and their elite power utities don't want the public(university students) realizing that electricity can be extracted from nature all around us?ARE you aware that truth is growing and people are starting to ignore this junk?
whoosh,whoosh,
thunderbolts dott info
holoscience dott comm
What if the sun goes nova? Would we still be safe in mars? What if the sun becomes a blue dwarf star? Would we still get enough sunlight in Mars to survive?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe average duration for a given species on Earth is about 2-3 million years. Unless we somehow manage to buck that trend in a fantastic fashion, we won't be around to care. But it's an interesting question, and one that my students ask about regularly!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAny tidal bulge transfers momentum from the rotating object to the orbiting object just as the earth-moon system has transferred momentum from a fast rotating earth to the orbiting moon. The moon is still moving away from the earth as the earth slows down. A tidal bulge on the sun will cause the earth to move away.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTilde bulge? But this works both ways... the mass of the objects in our solar system is a fraction of the suns mass hence very small impact on the medium that makes up the suns atmosphere. Might the current rotational rate crate a more significant bulge? That is the centrifuginal forces of its rotation would diminish as it slows, e.g. the sun would become more rounded, sucking in its equator and becoming taller. This effect, by the way, does indeed have a net effect on the earths temperature as the energy comes from a larger sun from our prospective, e.g. it will become taller and a little less wide which counters the wider and less taller profile of the earth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho cares?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyahoo!!!!! it's already end times....i like it...................
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIsn't the moon needed to stabilize the earth's axis? If the axis isn't stabilized the earth will experience major extremes in temperature that would render the earth uninhabitable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm pretty sure humans will find another home on other planets in the future, if we know what we are doing, so we would be in other galaxies etc.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisif this change does not happen to be and accidental catastrophy, i think by then as habitable life dies away from the earth, it will be in the stage of being created elsewhere on another plannet.depending on our advancement in research , technology and discovery, man will be starting to adapt to the new life on the newly found habitat planets as our mother earth encounters its fate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswell, wouldn;t we all die anyway, because the sun is mainly the source of all life on Earth except for some stuff in the oceans? so, it doesn;t really matter, we'll just die one way or another.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisit doesn;t really matter, because the earth will just cease to have most life if there is no sun!! so we'll die regardless
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs others here have already noted: no sun, no life. What's the point of developing strategies for saving a future sunless earth? Even if it could survive the sun's red giant stage, it would never escape the sun's ultimate destiny: to become a black hole. Human life on earth is finite. Case closed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Even if it could survive the sun's red giant stage, it would never escape the sun's ultimate destiny: to become a black hole."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNix that. I should have said: white dwarf, NOT black hole. (It's late and the brain is fuzzy...). Well, if it were possible to nudge the earth's orbit far enough out of the way during the sun's red giant expansion phase, and then keep nudging it ever closer to the ever colder white dwarf sun, then...(ahem) I still stand by my final analysis: if we (by this I mean our human descendants) stay on earth -- we're goners! :--)
about the topic so it means that there theories is 2? they are arguing if the eart will move up when the sun will redgiant and the other one is that earth could be swallowed by the sun? but according to my calculation the sun will really swallow the earth. why?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. sun is increasing its own radius
2. is that possible that the eart could escape the aging of the sun?
3. if it happens that the earth could escape how could we survive if the 2 planets that are onwards to us are already swallowed??
i hope that in 7.6 bil years our scientist would event something that could help our mother earth to be safe. we should not waste our natures energey thus we should use it in good motives..
if want to talk to me email me crusaider_8@hotmail.com
about the topic so it means that there theories is 2? they are arguing if the eart will move up when the sun will redgiant and the other one is that earth could be swallowed by the sun? but according to my calculation the sun will really swallow the earth. why?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. sun is increasing its own radius
2. is that possible that the eart could escape the aging of the sun?
3. if it happens that the earth could escape how could we survive if the 2 planets that are onwards to us are already swallowed??
i hope that in 7.6 bil years our scientist would event something that could help our mother earth to be safe. we should not waste our natures energey thus we should use it in good motives..
if want to talk to me email me crusaider_8@hotmail.com
i say we starp some huge ass rockets to earth and fly our way out of this shitty solar system....WOOSH!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSTRAP*
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this:/ you mean in 7.6 billion years i am going to die? I have so much to do, has this been verified? I mean, has anybody actually asked the sun or are we just speculating what he might do? If he really does have a grudge against earth, then why wait billions of years? Why not do it now? Perhaps he is too young to challenge the mighty power of earth, anyway if worst comes to worst the obvious thing to do would be to invent some sort of time travelling device, such a machine would be extremely economical, only requiring to be used once every billions of years. In this way we can thwart the suns evil plans and continue to live a blissful immortal existence
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this:/ you mean in 7.6 billion years i am going to die? I have so much to do, has this been verified? I mean, has anybody actually asked the sun or are we just speculating what he might do? If he really does have a grudge against earth, then why wait billions of years? Why not do it now? Perhaps he is too young to challenge the mighty power of earth, anyway if worst comes to worst the obvious thing to do would be to invent some sort of time travelling device, such a machine would be extremely economical, only requiring to be used once every billions of years. In this way we can thwart the suns evil plans and continue to live a blissful immortal existence
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this7.6 Billion years ? i believe they're wrong. it may sound crazy. but earth will be destroyed sooner than we think. it's not by luck that astriods haven't hit the earth. and who is this God we speak about. not saying i dont believe in God himself, but my beliefs is turning slowly. i have seen ufo's many times and i believe they have somthing to do with mankind. now i do believe in ufo's. and if there is a god, than the ufo's must be his angels....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI totally agree with megacale. We will have evolved into god only knows what by the time that we reach that 7.6 billion years. Our earth is about 4.6 billion years old and we've gone from single celled bacteria to what we are today, I'd shutter to think what we will become with another 4.6 billion years under our belts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have just 1 thing to say. What about the theory of general relativity? If the sun expands to a red giant, the orbit of the earth will expand by the same percentage that the sun grew. So we would not be incinerated. And when it becomes a dwarf, the orbit of the earth will shrink with it. P.S. I am a christian and believe that the world will be over before then.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisU KNOW...maverick is right beacuse why would we live on mars anyways:-P.tht reason is simple the sun engulfed tht planet And it will be even hotter than it was.2nd reason it tht I THINK!!! some of the planets closer to the sun drffted away already.3rd reason is tht thier is no plants.water,or meat on mars unless aliens.4th reason it tht The sun is a black hole i guess already.5th reason is tht if we were to live on mars!!!k think about the 5th reason sjspartan....The Sun Is Gone!!!....We depend on the sun for our life cycle And withought the sun in out solar system...NO PLANET tht we know will survive withouht the sun UNLESS some dude or GOD! made a new sun in 1 eye of a wink tht will last for eternity....:-|
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBUTT IF U LIVE forever GOD HIMSELF!!! will send u to hell for eternity like i seen in the bible this what it said "If u are a friend of earth,U are an enemy to GOD!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt has now been published in
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNatural Science, vol.2, no. 4, pp. 329-337, 2010, doi:10.4236/ns.2010.24041
How is the planet's current orbit have to 1.15 to survive at tip RGB? Sun's maximum extent is 1.2 AU, about the tidal interaction to Smith and Schroeder's calculations maps Earth to be destroyed when sun gets to 0.9 AU, that is 0.1 AU before sun reaches orbit. So if Mercury, Venus, and Earth are engulfed shouldn't Mars and other planets expand to higher orbits. Or is it their error, planet's current orbit has to be 1.30 AU or higher in order to survive at RGB?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThen if Mercury, Venus, and Earth are destroyed then where will Earthlike habitable zone suppose to be by tip of RGB. Will it extend out to Pluto? or Eris? Will Saturn's moon Titan be too hot by then? if it is hot, Will Titan be more like 500K, or 800 K? I originally thought Mars and outer planet's orbit will escape due to loss of gravitational field. Will tidal interaction affect Mars and beyond?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHell. Im an aetheiat but it seems fiery destruction is the ultimate fate of life on Earth. My fossilised ass is due for vapourisation along with every other bald monkeys' regardless of their religious persuasion. Feel the burn? We wont!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- Jack Kerouac from the novel Desolation Angels