When will the world end?
My wife and I run an astronomy-related web site, so we occasionally get emails from visitors. Mostly, their questions are thoughtful, and I enjoy answering them.
One recent query came from Gabriela in Houston, Texas. She wrote:
WHEN DO U THINK the wolrd will end cuz arnt u a scientist
I'm guessing that Gabriela has recently seen the movie 2012. The plot summary at Wikipedia begins thus:
In 2009, young American geologist Adrian Helmsley learns from a colleague in India that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are acting as microwave radiation, causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly.
If there were an Academy Award for hokey science, this movie would be a cert to win. It makes Men In Black look like a Nova documentary.
However, I digress.
The world won't end in December 2012. That's the good news.
The bad news is that a real disaster-movie scenario will play out around 3.5 billion years from now, when the Sun's energy output will have increased by about 40% compared to present levels, leading to the catastrophic and irreversible loss of all of the surface water on the planet.
About 8 billion years from now, the Sun will become a red giant star, expanding to engulf Mercury and becoming 2,000 times brighter than it is now. It would be a spectacular sight from the Earth, except that the Earth's surface will be a hadean landscape of molten rock.
These are just two stages in the future history of the Sun. You can read the whole life story of our star, from its birth to its eventual death, in a fascinating article entitled The Once and Future Sun by Ohio State University astronomy professor Richard Pogge.
As always, science reveals wonders that are far beyond the imaginations of even the most talented movie writers.
One recent query came from Gabriela in Houston, Texas. She wrote:
WHEN DO U THINK the wolrd will end cuz arnt u a scientist
I'm guessing that Gabriela has recently seen the movie 2012. The plot summary at Wikipedia begins thus:
In 2009, young American geologist Adrian Helmsley learns from a colleague in India that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are acting as microwave radiation, causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly.
If there were an Academy Award for hokey science, this movie would be a cert to win. It makes Men In Black look like a Nova documentary.
However, I digress.
The world won't end in December 2012. That's the good news.
The bad news is that a real disaster-movie scenario will play out around 3.5 billion years from now, when the Sun's energy output will have increased by about 40% compared to present levels, leading to the catastrophic and irreversible loss of all of the surface water on the planet.
About 8 billion years from now, the Sun will become a red giant star, expanding to engulf Mercury and becoming 2,000 times brighter than it is now. It would be a spectacular sight from the Earth, except that the Earth's surface will be a hadean landscape of molten rock.
These are just two stages in the future history of the Sun. You can read the whole life story of our star, from its birth to its eventual death, in a fascinating article entitled The Once and Future Sun by Ohio State University astronomy professor Richard Pogge.
As always, science reveals wonders that are far beyond the imaginations of even the most talented movie writers.