Earth's Final Sunset Predicted

[rayofreason]

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice," wrote the poet Robert Frost. Astronomers, it turns out, are in the former camp.

A new calculation predicts that Earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6 billion years, capping off a longstanding debate over whether the sun's gravitational pull will have weakened enough for Earth to escape final destruction or not.

Other theorists have predicted that our planet will fry as the sun expands in its old age. But the time estimates have varied by a couple billion years.


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080226-vaporized-earth.html

[orleans]

1. c'est la vie

we'll never know for sure

[pepperbear]

2. thank goodness the beatles already came along. n/t

[12string]

10. The Beatles

I was driving down the road one day last spring and Eleanore Rigby came on the radio.I'm getting quite emotional in my advancing years and I found myself being a little overwhelmed,feeling very lucky to have been born in the Beatles era.And not just for their music but for all the good music of the era.

[AndyTiedye]

3. We Really Ought to Leave Before That Happens

[theredpen]

5. I don't think humans will be here for that

Now, will they be elsewhere? 7.6 billion years is a lot of time in which NOT to have a catastrophic extinction.

[AndyTiedye]

6. Some of Us Going Elsewhere Makes Extinction a Lot Less Likely

[theredpen]

12. Elsewhere would have to be many light years away

That's a tough trip to make, although we have a while to work out the details.

If "elsewhere" was Mars, that'll crash into Sol soon after Earth does.

[Swede]

14. Lots of moons and asteroids in the solar system.

That will only be for survival,not the long term expanion to the stars.

[dweller]

4. it will be a Thursday by my calculations

i always sleep late on thursdays, so i plan to miss it.

(just in case my math is off, i'll sleep late on fridays too, one can't be too sure).
dp

[unc70]

8. Did you allow for the leap seconds?

Now how would that expanding sun interact with the rotation of the earth? Let me see now, ...

Oh, almost forgot. The moon would have already escaped earth orbit long before this. Wonder where it went. No moon, no tides. One damn thing after another.

[bjobotts]

7. All time exists at the same time.Multiple experiences of reality & separated awareness.

Been there and back many times. It all begins and ends with the big bang and has always been here so drop in anytime or place of awareness. It's always been circle as in god breathes in then god breathes out. All that is just is, and all that is is god. The beginning and the end...for they are the same. God in the act of experiencing himself. You are god, you are just not all that god is, just a fragment of experience and awareness. Sweet dreams.

[LibertyorDeath]

9. So I can stop Recycling

Cheers were all Fucked !!

[Geoff R. Casavant]

11. I can finally sleep in the next morning! n/t

[hunter]

13. They'll celebrate by reconstituting a 21st century human.

He'll watch the event briefly on television, but then he'll pop open a beer and turn the channel to a Dukes of Hazard rerun.

[and-justice-for-all]

15. there will not be Humans or recognizable animals in 7.6b yrs

And between now and then, the Earth will have gone through some major changes.

[Magnifica]

16. My poor grand-grand-grand

grand-grand etc. sons.

[appletasty]

17. I expect to be alive then

if I can.