One day, in about five billion years, the Sun will destroy our planet. When the life cycle of this celestial body comes to an end, the number of hydrogen and helium atoms in the star's core will decrease, which will make the Sun shine brighter and brighter, incinerating the nearest planets and the Earth as well. In the end, the Sun will turn into a red dwarf - a small and relatively cool star that emits little light. However, you and I should not worry about the events that will happen to our planet in billions of years. Most likely, human civilization will disappear much earlier.
Why search for other planets?
Since nothing is eternal in the Universe, at some point there will be no trace of our planet. And that's okay. As astronomer and Harvard Astronomy Chair Avi Loeb writes in his column for Scientific American, it is very important that our species move to other parts of the universe that are not so close to the fluctuating brightness of the Sun. According to Loeb, we should not remain chained to existing planets and moons. After successfully colonizing nearby and interstellar space, we can create genetically identical copies of ourselves, as well as flora and fauna, to sow life on other planets. Note that Avi Loeb has no doubts that extraterrestrial life in the Universe exists or existed before.
Thinking about the future of humanity, Loeb notes that once we solve the basic problems associated with space travel, which will be very, very difficult, humanity must focus on copying itself and other species before we are all destroyed by the blinding brightness of our home star. According to the astronomer, we should also focus on finding exoplanets. Recall that in September, scientists announced the discovery of water vapor on the potentially habitable planet K2-18b. This exoplanet is a super-Earth that orbits a star 110 light years away. K2-18b is the only known planet outside the solar system that has water, an atmosphere, and a temperature range that prevents water from freezing on the surface. Nevertheless, Loeb ends his column rather gloomily, believing thatthat our civilization will exist for a very short time:
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What threats are facing our civilization?
Scientists from the University of Oxford claim that 99% of the species that ever existed on our planet are extinct. All the more surprising is our desire to consider ourselves invincible. According to scientists, our existence is as fragile as everything else on this planet, and the chances that human civilization will disappear at any moment are frighteningly high. By analyzing man-made disasters, such as nuclear war, and linking it to natural disasters, such as a volcanic eruption or an asteroid strike, a team of researchers from the University of Oxford has found that in 2020, our civilization is 200 times more likely to die than it is to win the lottery. The work was published in Scientific Reports.
Moreover, according to some scientists, right now we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, caused by human activities. Given the number of threats facing humanity today, the death of life on Earth as a result of the growing brightness of the Sun in billions of years looks the least frightening.
Author: Lyubov Sokovikova