Man has long guessed that nothing lasts forever under the Sun. In the middle of the last century, it became clear that our luminary is not eternal. After 5.5 billion years, it will begin to slowly expand, and its surface will cool down …
Coming cataclysms do not bode well for our planet. Calculations show that in several billion years, in the phase of maximum expansion of the Sun, the present orbit of the Earth will be inside its plasma ocean. The fate of the Earth itself is not so clear, but nevertheless tragic. Since the Sun during its transformation into a red giant will lose about a third of its mass, its gravity will greatly weaken. It can be expected that the radius of the Earth's orbit will be lengthened by about 60 million kilometers because of this, and the Earth, most likely, will not fall into the solar furnace. However, its surface will heat up to at least 2000 degrees - with all the obvious consequences. According to another model, later the Earth will be slowed down by tidal forces and it will dive into the Sun's atmosphere.
Flight of the Earth
It seems that these forecasts should not bother us - there are closer dangers. Since the birth of the Sun, its luminosity has been steadily increasing. Within 1-2 billion years, the oceans will evaporate and the planet's surface will be unsuitable for life (in fact, serious troubles will begin much earlier).
But, let's say, our distant descendants will somehow cope with this threat. The question arises, will they sooner or later have to build space squadrons in order to get away from their home planet, or will they be able to save it from burning in a solar oven?
It turns out that such opportunities exist and are even being discussed. One of them was proposed in 1982 by M. Taube, a nuclear technology specialist at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute. He recommends turning our planet into a gigantic spaceship and, without waiting for a catastrophe, go on a long journey beyond Pluto's orbit. Taube believes that this can be done by preserving the daily rhythm of the Earth's rotation, a change in which would entail global geological cataclysms.
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The planet is like a ship
How is it? Taube proposes to put 24 gigantic bundles, each containing a hundred rockets with 30-kilometer nozzles, at the equator at the same distance from each other. Each missile system must be turned on once a day, half an hour before noon local time, and it must work within an hour. As a result, a reactive force will continuously act on the Earth, directed along its radius vector in the direction opposite to the Sun. This will allow the Earth to move away from the Sun (naturally, without parting with the Moon) along a slowly unwinding spiral trajectory, which will gradually take it out of the orbit of Pluto.
Taube thought through all the details. The energy for such a voyage will be provided by thermonuclear reactors - nothing better is foreseen yet. Each rocket, during operation, will eject 100 tons of super-hot hydrogen into space every second, escaping from its nozzle at a speed of 300 km / s. Calculations have shown that not so much time will pass from the beginning of the journey to its finish, only several tens of thousands of years. Naturally, it will not be possible to maneuver the Earth in space, and therefore it will be necessary ahead of time to destroy or move asteroids that may be in its path.
Planetary accounting
Will humanity have enough resources to accomplish such a daunting task? The required amount of hydrogen is 10% of the Earth's mass. Where can we get it if the total amount of this element in the composition of our planet is much less than one percent? Taube proposes to produce hydrogen either on Jupiter or on another giant planet, where it is abundant.
The Zurich prophet also took care of meeting the energy needs of earthlings at the end of the journey. At first they will be heated by the swollen Sun, but what about when all that remains of it is a cooling white dwarf? One possible solution is to mine deuterium from Jupiter and transport it to the surface of the dwarf to support the fusion reactions that go on with the release of energy. Taube calculated that such an artificial star would provide our descendants with warmth and light for a hundred billion years. And for now, you don't have to worry about what will happen in the future.
In 2008, Taube modified this plan somewhat. In particular, he proposed to extend the Earth's journey to the Kuiper belt for 10 million years and there to put it into orbit around the artificial sun, created by the merger of a couple of dozen gas giants confiscated from other stars. So our descendants have many opportunities. But will there be a desire?
Alexey Levin