• Question: will the world end?

    Asked by saraw to Sinead, Jessamyn, Eleanor, Chris, Adam on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Eventually, and unfortunately, yes it will.

      There’s a few ideas as to how.

      In 5 billion years (give or take) our Sun will become a pensioner and expand into a Red Giant. Red Giants are huge and would definitely expand so much it would just take us in and melt us.

      There’s also another galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, which is on a collision course with ours. If that happens, the Earth might be fine, or it might get torn apart.

      Eventually, the world will end, but I’d say we’d have found other planets by then

    • Photo: Eleanor Holmes

      Eleanor Holmes answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper”

      Yes this planet will eventually cease to be. I 5 billion years or so the Sun will swallow us up. And long before that it will probably stop giving us all the energy that is vital to life on this planet. On THIS planet. But is The World this planet or is it the people and ideas that inhabit it. With 5 Billion years we should be able to find a new place to live and call home.

      On a grander scale, the Universe itself is constantly expanding. There are two possibilities for the future. Either it will continue expanding and in that case all the matter in the Universe will continue to be and every atom that was once part of your laptop, or your teacher, or your cat will continue to exist. floating in the vacuum after the Sun boils us all up.
      But if the Universe stops expanding and starts contracting, then all the matter will be squeezed back down into a Big Crunch and everything will cease to exist in a meaningful way.

      So yes, the world will end and in the most awesome way imaginable. That is so like the world.

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