Today, the sun is an important source of gravity and energy. But one day it will cause the destruction of the earth. As the solar system’s central star ages, its life cycle will eventually run out of our blue marble.
So how long does it take earth Will it continue until the Earth is swallowed by the sun? Expected time of death: Billions of years from now. But life on Earth will end much sooner than that.
Earth will soon become uninhabitable for most living things 1.3 billion years Experts told Live Science that this is due to the natural evolution of the sun. And at the current rate of human creation, humans could easily drive ourselves (and countless other species) to extinction within the next few centuries. climate change Not reduced.
Related: Is the Earth moving closer to the Sun or farther away?
death of the sun
Our planet’s ultimate curtain call is tied to the evolution of the Sun.
“Earth will probably take 4.5 billion years before the sun becomes a big red giant and engulfs Earth.” Ravi Koparapu, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told Live Science. Red giant stars form during the final stages of stellar evolution, when the star runs out of hydrogen to fuel it. Nuclear fusion And that’s how you start dying, according to european space agency.
When nuclear fusion stops, gravity takes over. The helium core begins to compress due to gravity and its temperature increases. This spike of heat triggers an outer plasma layer. Sun Expand dramatically. “The sun will swell to at least the size of Earth’s orbit,” Koparapu said.
the fate of the earth
But the Earth likely won’t last that 4.5 billion years, and it’s certainly not the Earth as we know it.
“There’s no need to wait for the outer layer.” [of the sun] “It will reach Earth,” he said. Long before the Sun completes its transition to a red giant, Earth will experience extreme heat. As the sun’s death process progresses, temperatures will rise, “the oceans will evaporate, the atmosphere will eventually disappear, and then the sun’s gravitational tidal forces will tear the Earth apart.”
Approximately 1.3 billion years from now, conditions will continue to be so hot and humid that “human beings will no longer be able to survive physiologically in nature or on Earth.” In about 2 billion years, when the sun becomes nearly 20% brighter than it is now, the oceans could evaporate, Koparapu said.
Some life may survive to this point, such as “extremophiles” living near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, but humans will not, Koparapu said.
“Humans, and all complex life forms, are very poor.” Rodolfo Garciadoctoral student in astronomy and astrobiology at the University of Washington told Live Science. For humans, for example, a fever of just 6 degrees Fahrenheit (3.3 degrees Celsius) can be life-threatening.
dangerous wet bulb temperature Due to a combination of temperature, humidity, wind speed, sun angle and cloud cover, the situation where humans are no longer able to cool themselves by sweating is much more imminent and just a few degrees away, Koparapu said.
Human wet bulb threshold was originally predicted to be 95 F (35 C), but new research suggests wet bulb temperatures may be as low as 35 C. 86°F (30°C) It can be deadly.
some places Wet-bulb temperatures around the globe have already exceeded 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) several times, and climate models predict that 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) will become the norm in regions such as the Middle East by the end of the century. . At those temperatures, Koparapu said, animals that sweat are essentially cooking in the heat. Essentially, our own greenhouse gases will threaten life and society on Earth long before the sun disappears.
“If you’re talking about the human lifespan, the next 100 years are going to be interesting,” Koparapu said.