"The future looks bright—maybe too bright"... is how this article begins the story of how the sun will eventually engulf the earth in a few billion years.
"The sun is slowly expanding and brightening, and over the next few billion years it will eventually desiccate Earth, leaving it hot, brown and uninhabitable. About 7.6 billion years from now, the sun will reach its maximum size as a red giant: its surface will extend beyond Earth’s orbit today by 20 percent and will shine 3,000 times brighter. In its final stage, the sun will collapse into a white dwarf." (scientific american)
The sun is one day going to go nova. This is the nova of the physical variety. The kind you learn about in school or hear about on NOVA. This is unrelated from the nova we talk about the earth experiencing here. The link is clear though. If our sun goes nova, we go nova. I think, however, humanity (or the aliens that overthrow humanity and inhabit this planet) will destory this planet long before the expected seven and a half billion years our star still has left.
One of the solutions, provided we are here, is MOVING THE EARTH out to a safer orbit. Anyone care to guess how long this could take? A billion years! A BILLION YEARS. Think about that. We don't, as a species, have the ability to think a hundred or even 50 years out when it comes to trying to save our planet. Oh well.
Oh and did you hear the world's financial market is collapsing? And that I am sick?
(image via sciam.com)
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