Thankfully, this debate is still purely academic for all of us alive today. Other scientists have suggested schemes for moving Earth deeper into the solar system by slowly increasing its orbit. Some suspect the sun will stop growing just before fully engulfing our planet. All the rocks and fossils and remains of the creatures that have lived here will be gobbled up by the sun’s growing orb, wiping out any lingering trace of humanity’s existence on Earth.īut not all scientists agree with this interpretation. But, in comparison, life has already existed on this planet for well over 3 billion years.Īnd, when the sun does turn into a red giant, the Earth will also be vaporized - perhaps just a few million years after Mercury and Venus have been consumed. By some estimates, it could be as little as a billion years before the sun’s radiation becomes too much for life on Earth to handle. That’s because the sun is actually already growing brighter. While the sun may have 5 billion years left before it runs out of fuel, life on Earth will likely be wiped out long before that happens. Then, it too will be consumed by the sun. As the sun expands, it will burn up Venus’ atmosphere. But Venus’ hellish surface shares little in common with Earth’s Goldilocks-perfect conditions. Venus is sometimes called “Earth’s twin” because the neighboring worlds are so similar in size and composition. As our star ages, it will vaporize those remaining volatiles before eventually vaporizing the entire planet in a slow-motion version of Star Wars ’ Death Star. But even today, Mercury still clings to some icy patches.
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Throughout solar system history, the innermost planet has been baked by the sun.
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Let’s take a quick jaunt through our solar system in the last days of the sun. “Late in the life of the sun - in the red giant phase - the Kuiper Belt will be a metaphorical Miami Beach,” Stern says. These are the “delayed gratification habitable worlds,” says planetary scientist Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute. As our sun expands, these worlds will suddenly find themselves with the conditions necessary for the evolution of life. The slow death will kill off life on Earth, but it may also create habitable worlds in what’s currently the coldest reaches of the solar system.Īny humans left around might find refuge on Pluto and other distant dwarf planets out in the Kuiper Belt, a region past Neptune packed with icy space rocks. Exactly how far the dying sun will expand, and how conditions will change, aren’t yet clear. Steinhöfel/ESO)Īnd what will happen to the planets once the sun enters the red giant phase? The solar system’s denouement is still a subject of debate among scientists. The life cycle of the sun takes it from the life-giving star we know today into a swelling red giant and, eventually, a planetary nebula surrounding a tiny white dwarf.