Posted on 02/22/2008 5:43:18 AM PST by Red Badger
A NASA-released ultravilet image of the sun. The big news: Earth is doomed to fry and then be gobbled up by the dying Sun.
New calculations by University of Sussex astronomers predict that the Earth will be swallowed up by the Sun in about 7.6 billion years unless the Earth's orbit can be altered.
Dr Robert Smith, Emeritus Reader in Astronomy, said his team previously calculated that the Earth would escape ultimate destruction, although be battered and burnt to a cinder. But this did not take into account the effect of the drag caused by the outer atmosphere of the dying Sun.
He says: "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. 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.
"If that were the only effect the Earth would indeed escape final destruction. However, the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun extends a long way beyond its visible surface, and it turns out the Earth would actually be orbiting within these very low density outer layers. The drag caused by this low-density gas is enough to cause the Earth to drift inwards, and finally to be captured and vaporised by the Sun."
The new paper was written in collaboration with Dr Klaus-Peter Schroeder, previously at Sussex, who is now in the Astronomy Department of the University of Guanajuato in Mexico.
Life on Earth will have disappeared long before 7.6 billion years, however. Scientists have shown that the Sun's slow expansion will cause the temperature at the surface of the Earth to rise. Oceans will evaporate, and the atmosphere will become laden with water vapour, which (like carbon dioxide) is a very effective greenhouse gas. Eventually, the oceans will boil dry and the water vapour will escape into space. In a billion years from now the Earth will be a very hot, dry and uninhabitable ball.
Can anything be done to prevent this fate? Professor Smith points to a remarkable scheme proposed by a team at Santa Cruz University, who suggest harnessing the gravitational effects of a close passage by a large asteroid to "nudge" the Earth's orbit gradually outwards away from the encroaching Sun. A suitable passage every 6000 years or so would be enough to keep the Earth out of trouble and allow life to survive for at least 5 billion years, and possibly even to survive the Sun's red giant phase.
"This sounds like science fiction," says Professor Smith. "But it seems that the energy requirements are just about possible and the technology could be developed over the next few centuries." However, it is a high-risk strategy - a slight miscalculation, and the asteroid could actually hit the Earth, with catastrophic consequences. "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 adds.
Citation: 'Distant Future of the Sun and Earth Revisted', by Dr Klaus-Peter Schroeder and Professor Robert Smith, Astrophysics http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/0801.4031
Source: University of Sussex
I knew global warming would get us, Al Gore was right after all.
I’m going to run out and buy some bread and milk.
If this is all gonna happen, why are we worrying about the polar bears?.................
It is a little disturbing that we only have 1 billion years before the planet is more or less unihabitable.
Seeing as it is 4 billion now, we’re in the last 1/5 of its lifetime before the oceans burn away.
Quick, stick figures running back and forth please.
Don't let Obama hear about this. He'll hope it out of danger.
I need to check the shelf life of all the survival foods I purchased for Y2K.........on the other hand, since the end is near, maybe I had better just start eating them.
Better buy some really good sunglasses.............
For the humanist, facing the ultimate and inevitable end of mankind means the end of meaning itself.
Better get DirecTV. You can used the dish for shade.......
Hope, and some pixies dust and really, really good thoughts................
I feel so much better.
Save the chocolate for last.............
Unfortunately, there isn’t enough material in the entire solar system to make enough duct tape to fix this......
If there are humans around by then, we will have the technology to deal with it. If we’re not around, why care?
When the time comes, Uranus is going to look very appealing.
I cant promise you tomorrow
No one has the right to lie
You can beg and steal and borrow
It won't save you from the sky
Let me see a show of hands
Tell me the truth now
What happens if
Nuetrinos have mass?
I can't tell you about tomorrow
I'm as lost as yesterday
In between your joy and sorrow
I suggest you have your say
Here's to the little things
The sports section
The weather channel
A good battery
-Bob Seger, "Tomorrow"
(snicker snort)........
It’s no longer global warming. It’s GLOBAL FRYING!
Ask those same scientist what the weather will be like in 3 months. They can’t.
I don't know if that is a compliment or a statement I should be very afraid of.......
Don’t forget to take a shower too....
...which it never particularly has, till now.
I’m gonna start bottling up my own water and stock up on freeze-dried foods... Oh yeah,.. and on guns and ammo! After all, I AM a conservative! heheheh...
That’s actually up a few billion years on the previous red giant estimates;
but they forgot that before that happens, this galaxy is going to collide with the Andromeda galaxy anyway.
Steering the Earth out of harm’s way could happen - it might be more viable to have terraformed another planet, or found one already inhabitable. Kinda like a future Noah’s Ark.
Remember the guy that got ate by the bear that he was singing to? You should never sing to polor bears also. If you do sing to polor bears, you should worry.
Ask them about anything that doesn’t have a government grant and you won’t get an answer.
I’ll put this on my list of growing things to worry about...
You should get popcorn. At that temp, it will cook before it hits the pan. LOL
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