Knowing when life on Earth will end is one of the things that worries us the most, and now NASA has begun to talk about the famous “end of the world”. But wait, it will not be tomorrow, nor apocalyptic (well, we do not know that for sure) but the most likely thing is that you will not live to see it.
The data has been given by its supercomputer, which has calculated how much time is left for life as we know it, could the Earth disappear?
It is not that simple, our planet could continue existing for millions of years, but there will come a moment in which the Sun ages, heats the surface so much that the oceans evaporate and the Earth will enter a path with no return (humans, of course, by that date will already be extinct, on Mars or who knows where).
The simulation
This prediction has been made, as we told you, by NASA’s supercomputer and University College London and has combined more than 400,000 simulations to know how the atmosphere could react, what changes could occur in the planet’s geology…
A world that heats up
The key to the future of our planet is the Sun. As it ages, it becomes more luminous (hotter, of course). And that, in the long term, raises Earth’s temperatures, each year a little more (we are already experiencing it with climate change, right?).
The model estimates that it will be in five billion years (you have time to finish your laundry and your favorite series on Netflix, yes) when temperature levels are reached in which the oceans can no longer remain in liquid state, they begin to evaporate and all the planet’s balance disappears.
An unrecognizable Earth
This “end” does not arrive as many had imagined, with meteorites crashing and people screaming “the children!!!”, but it will be rather little by little, a silent process that transforms the planet into a giant hostile ball where there is no life…
The atmosphere changes…
Because there will only be water vapor, the ocean will become clouds and the temperature will rise even more, humans and animals will cease to exist long before, as temperatures rise it will be impossible to breathe. There will be no water, no rains, no seas…
The Earth will increasingly resemble Venus, toxic, burning and bright, but empty…
Can humanity change this destiny?
No, we cannot avoid it, and this has nothing to do with current climate change, which is urgent and does depend on us as a society.
This scenario is the natural process of stars like the Sun and we cannot do anything there because the Sun does not have fast charging and someday it will end up disappearing.
Doubts and fears
Every time NASA releases a prediction like this people panic (as if they were going to live it firsthand). Some say they are preparing us for something bigger (and that arrives sooner, of course, otherwise what sense if our time here is finite), and other fantastic ones think it is a secret plan to justify a space exodus. From here to five million years from now we will surely already have conquered part of space, but nothing removes the possibility that this happens because it is a natural process and it can also happen with other stars (because besides, it has already happened).
We love drama, but this is not drama, it is geology (or space-ology, whatever you want to call it).
Life on Earth is finite and vulnerable, and we assume every day that, since the Earth has always been here, it always will be, but no! At some point it will end, but we will not be here to see it.