Hey there, here I am again……
Hope you liked the last articles; now hear is another scenario which is definitely possible….
The sun, a glowing star in the middle of our solar system, providing the earth with the energy it needs to survive. Even though our sun is not the biggest out of the billions of stars around the galaxy, but it is just the right size for providing life on our earth with the light energy it needs to survive. The sun seems like a permanent object in the sky but technology has enabled us to see that stars also are born, live and grow, and die.
So, let’s first see the life cycle of a star. Our space may seem empty but it is actually filled with thinly spread gas and dust particle. In some places these gases and dust particles are close together in big cloud. This is the birthplace of the star called the nebula. Our sun probably also started as a nebula about 5 billion years ago. Then the cloud of gas turns to a luminous globe of gas producing its own heat and light by nuclear reactions, this is called a star. This is known as the main sequence where the star spends most of its life. The third stage occurs when the outer layers called the planetary nebulae are lost and a large bright star with a cool surface is formed. This star is called the red giant; in its centre hydrogen and helium is running out but the star is brighter than the latter stage as it is large but the surface temperature is about 2000 – 3000 degrees Celsius when the star has a surface temperature from 2000 to above 3000 degrees Celsius. In this stage the star he core will collapse under its own weight and the outer layer will become unstable hence, expanding. This will probably happen to the sun in 4 billion years. The dying core eventually forms a white dwarf – a spherical diamond the size of the Earth, made of carbon and oxygen. From this point on the Sun will gradually fade away, becoming dimmer and dimmer until its light is finally snuffed out. If the star was slightly bigger than the sun it would die out with an explosion known as a supernova.
Well, other than the fact that the sun will die, which is billions of years ahead of us, there is no other near danger ahead. But there is another danger other than the sun vanishing that would end life. This will happen earlier, even though this won’t happen in the near future, the consequences are disastrous. When the sun enters its third stage which is the red giant, the sun begins to expand and it may engulf the inner solar system. So, our earth may one day be engulfed by a fireball. Life on earth may end well before it gets engulfed as the growing heat causes temperatures to rise and the temperature could become too hot to bear and thus, we’re extinct.
So, how would it feel to live on earth seeing day by day as the sun appears to come closer and getting larger? The temperature slowly rising, causing forests to catch fire and melting the polar caps; these changes would feel like extensive global warming. The rising sea levels due to the polar caps melting will engulf coastal regions. The rising temperatures will cause more hurricanes and tornadoes to occur devastating urban regions. At the end any species that can’t survive the heat will die and eventually the earth will become molten again and engulf all remaining living things.
So, this is another cause that is possible to occur; but there is something that does comfort us for now, the fact that this will take billions of years to occur.
Yet again is seems scary to think about but there are lot more scenarios that are as likely to happen as this one but might occur more quickly.
So, keep coming back and see what else danger is up ahead.
Bye,
We're Doomed 