Solar Intensification, Expansion and Cooling
From Preserving Humanity Wiki
[edit] Description
Future events in the life cycle of the Earth's Sun are predicted to endanger all life on Earth, including humanity and/or its biologically-based descendants. In predicted chronological order, the events would be:
- "...the Sun is gradually becoming more luminous (about 10% every 1 billion years), and its surface temperature is slowly rising. [...] The increase in solar temperatures is such that already in about a billion years, the surface of the Earth will become too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life."
- "...in about 5 billion years, [the Sun] will enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin when the core temperature reaches around 100 million kelvins and will produce carbon, entering the asymptotic giant branch phase. Earth's fate is precarious. As a red giant, the Sun will have a maximum radius beyond the Earth's current orbit, 1 AU (1.5 m), 250 times the present radius of the Sun. However, by the time it is an asymptotic giant branch star, the Sun will have lost roughly 30% of its present mass due to a stellar wind, so the orbits of the planets will move outward. If it were only for this, Earth would probably be spared, but new research suggests that Earth will be swallowed by the Sun owing to tidal interactions. Even if Earth would escape incineration in the Sun, still all its water will be boiled away and most of its atmosphere would escape into space."
[edit] Potential Solutions and Preparations
| This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors). | 
|
