Earth Doomed to
Fiery End, Experts Predict
By Darren Osborne
February 23, 2008 01:00am
Article from: The Daily Telegraph
OUR planet faces a fiery doom inside the
sun unless future generations work out how
to change its orbit.
New calculations by University of Sussex
astronomers predict the Earth will be
burnt to a cinder then swallowed up by the
sun in about 7.6 billion years.
Emeritus reader in astronomy Professor
Robert Smith and his team thought they
calculated that we may escape destruction
but new figures take into account the
effect of drag caused by the sun's outer
atmosphere.
"We showed previously that, as the sun
expanded, it would lose mass in the form
of a strong wind, much more powerful than
the current solar wind," Professor Smith
said.
"This would reduce the gravitational pull
of the sun on the Earth, allowing the
Earth's orbit to move outwards, ahead of
the expanding sun.
"However, the tenuous outer atmosphere of
the sun extends a long way beyond its
visible surface, and it turns out the
Earth would be orbiting within these very
low density outer layers."
He said the drag caused by the low-density
gas would be enough to cause the planet to
drift inward to be consumed by the sun.
However, if Earth remains in its current
orbit, life isn't likely to be here in 7.6
billion years.
As the sun expands in its end sequence,
Earth's surface temperatures will rapidly
rise causing oceans to evaporate, leaving
a hot, dry and uninhabitable ball.
Professor Smith suggested future
generations may extend the planet's life
by using the gravitational effect of a
close passing asteroid to "nudge" our
orbit away from the encroaching sun.
"It seems the energy requirements are just
about possible and the technology could be
developed over the next few centuries," he
said.
Such a solution doesn't come without risk.
Miscalculate, and the asteroid may hit
Earth.
"A safer solution may be to build a fleet
of interplanetary 'life rafts' that could
manoeuvre themselves always out of reach
of the sun, but close enough to use its
energy," he said.
delusions of grandeur
