The End Of The World - When Will The Earth Be Destroyed?

You wake up in the morning, take a shower, eat some breakfast, drink your cup of coffee and prepare to face the day. It's a beautiful day, the sun is shinning and the birds are chirping. You contently drive off to work completely unaware of whats going on far away, past the clouds in the sky, deep in space.

Originally, scientist thought that we had 7.5 billion years before our sun would die and engulf the Earth. Astronomers at the university of Sussex have come up with a new calculation. In 1 billion years the earth will become so hot that the oceans will boil and evaporate into space. The reason for the shortened time frame for the Earth's inevitable destruction is the original calculation did not take into effect the drag caused by the atmosphere of our dieing sun. Dr Robert Smith from the University of Sussex said: "We showed previously that, as the Sun expanded, it would lose mass in the form of a strong wind, much more powerful than the current solar wind. This would reduce the gravitational pull of the Sun on the Earth, allowing the Earth's orbit to move outwards, ahead of the expanding Sun”. Smith also said: "If that were the only effect the Earth would indeed escape final destruction. However, the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun extends a long way beyond its visible surface, and it turns out the Earth would actually be orbiting within these very low density outer layers. The drag caused by this low-density gas is enough to cause the Earth to drift inwards, and finally to be captured and vaporised by the Sun." This gives scientists approximately 1 billion years to come up with a solution to save our species.

What are some possible scenarios to escape or doomed fate on this planet. A team of scientist at the Santa Cruz University suggest using the gravitational pull of a large passing asteroid to gradually expand the Earth's orbit away from the sun. This plan, however, is extremely risky, a small miss calculation and the asteroid could hit the Earth, ending our existence before the sun does. Another possible solution would be to create "space life rafts" that could slowly move away from the sun, as it grows into a red giant star, but stay close enough to utilize its energy. Perhaps, we could even find a way to give our planet independent propulsion, moving the entire planet out of harms way.

Although the end of our world is millions of generations away, it is clear that it would be in our best interest, as a species, to find a way to leave the planet. So, don't worry enjoy that coffee and the warm summer breeze, you don't have to worry about any of this for another billion years... Unless of course, scientists come out with another "new calculation" proving the second one wrong, shortening the doomsday count down even more...