ARTICLE AD BOX
There are a huge number of terrifying scenarios that could cause the end of the world, ranging from artificial intelligence to the outbreak of all-out nuclear war and many others.
Although these scenarios seem scary, they are not inevitable and can be avoided. But Earth's doom is coming, with an even darker scenario.
A terrifying drawing reveals how the Sun will grow into a red giant (a dead star in the final stages of stellar evolution), and become so large that it will lead to the end of the solar system as we know it.
Although this may seem completely terrifying, there is no need to worry now, as Dr. Edward Plumer, chief astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, says that there are still about 5 billion years before the Sun reaches the red giant stage.
The Sun belongs to the category of stars that convert hydrogen into helium through the process of nuclear fusion under the force of gravity. This enormous force of gravity is what keeps the eight planets and countless other objects in the solar system in their orbit.
At the same time, the energy generated in nuclear fusion radiates out into the universe as heat, creating a habitable zone extending from just beyond Venus to the orbit of Mars.
However, Dr. Blumer said that all of this will eventually change, and in about 5 to 5.5 billion years from now, the Sun will begin to turn into a red giant.
He explained that this essentially happens when the Sun runs out of hydrogen, and its core begins to collapse.
As the outer layers collapse inward, the resulting pressure and heat will become so intense that these layers will begin to fuse helium atoms to form carbon.
The energy resulting from the fusion of helium causes the star to expand outward, increasing its size several times compared to its original size. Blumer asserts that this process will inevitably lead to the destruction of the solar system.
The diameter of the Sun is currently about 1.4 million km. But when it becomes a red giant, it can swell to more than 200 times that size, and reach a diameter of up to 300 million km.
When this happens, Mercury and Venus will be the first victims of the Sun's evolution, as they will be pulled into the Sun and destroyed.
Scientists are still unable to determine exactly what will happen to our planet, but theories suggest that the Sun may swallow the Earth entirely due to tidal forces, and this will be "the end of everything."
Even if the Earth managed to escape being swallowed by the Sun, the water on its surface would boil off, and most of its atmosphere would escape into space.
At best, if the Earth survives (with all life on it gone), it "will be a ball of dead, radiation-blasted rock."
Whatever the fate of Earth, it will likely be the last victim of the red giant.
The outer planets, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, will be exposed to the intense heat of the growing red giant, and they will lose their atmospheres, but they will not be completely destroyed.
Asteroids, the Kuiper belt (a region of the solar system outside the boundaries of the eight largest planets consisting of frozen bodies and rocks), and objects in the inner Oort cloud (a massive spherical cloud surrounding the solar system that is the main source of comets) will heat up so much that they will lose all their ice. After that, only rock and mineral cores will remain.
After the red giant stage, the Sun will turn into a planetary nebula with a white dwarf in the middle (the hot, dense core of a dead star). During this transformation, the Sun's core will shrink, shedding its outer layers, which will certainly push the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt out of the system, and may also expel Uranus and Neptune.
The white dwarf that our Sun evolves into will be able to shine for trillions of years until it sinks into darkness. The planetary nebula that our sun will create will disappear completely, and only the white dwarf and the remaining planets and asteroids will remain.
Dr. Blumer explains that some models predict that Saturn may suddenly find itself in the middle of a new habitable zone, but "we cannot live on Saturn, but perhaps on its moon Titan."