And as the steady thump of time drums down on our existence, the situation will only get more bleak.
The sun's death rattle
All good things eventually come to an end. And one day, about 4 billion or 5 billion years from now, the sun will burn through its last gasp of hydrogen and start burning helium instead.
"Once hydrogen has stopped burning in the core of the sun, the star has formally left the main sequence and can be considered a red giant," Scudder said. "It will then spend about a billion years expanding and burning helium in its core, with a shell around it where hydrogen is still able to fuse into helium."
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ZombieDarwin 7 year s ago
"This is how Earth is going to Parish", eh? Well, there will be a lot of praying involved.
"And it doesn't end there. A 10% increase in brightness every billion years means that 3.5 billion years from today, the sun will shine almost 40% brighter, which will boil Earth's oceans, melt its ice caps, and strip all of the moisture from its atmosphere."
[panicked voice from the back of the room]: How long did you say?
3.5 billion years
[same voice, noticeably calmer]: Oh, I thought you said 3.5 * million * years!
"And it doesn't end there. A 10% increase in brightness every billion years means that 3.5 billion years from today, the sun will shine almost 40% brighter, which will boil Earth's oceans, melt its ice caps, and strip all of the moisture from its atmosphere."
[panicked voice from the back of the room]: How long did you say?
3.5 billion years
[same voice, noticeably calmer]: Oh, I thought you said 3.5 * million * years!
"And it doesn't end there. A 10% increase in brightness every billion years means that 3.5 billion years from today, the sun will shine almost 40% brighter, which will boil Earth's oceans, melt its ice caps, and strip all of the moisture from its atmosphere."
[panicked voice from the back of the room]: How long did you say?
3.5 billion years
[same voice, noticeably calmer]: Oh, I thought you said 3.5 * million * years!