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If Earth is not ejected during a stellar encounter, then its orbit will decay via gravitational radiation until it collides with the Sun in 10 20 (100 quintillion) years. [110] If proton decay can occur and Earth is ejected to intergalactic space, then it will last around 10 38 (100 undecillion) years before evaporating into radiation. [111]
At long irregular intervals, Earth's biosphere suffers a catastrophic die-off, a mass extinction, [9] often comprising an accumulation of smaller extinction events over a relatively brief period. [10] The first known mass extinction was the Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago, which killed most of the planet's obligate anaerobes.
The Earth and Moon are very likely destroyed by falling into the Sun, just before the Sun reaches the top of its red giant phase. [121] [note 3] Before the final collision, the Moon possibly spirals below Earth's Roche limit, breaking into a ring of debris, most of which falls to the Earth's surface. [123]
The book also suggests that not only will Earth eventually become uninhabitable to complex life long before it finally gets destroyed by the Sun's red giant stage, it also implies that intelligent life will probably die out even much sooner due to them being even more fragile than other animals, and that not only microbial life were the first ...
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
A new study is shedding light on how and why Neanderthals died out. The predecessor to humans today, Homo sapiens, vanished about 42,000 years ago. ... With more cosmic radiation heating Earth ...
The first eon in Earth's history, the Hadean, begins with Earth's formation and is followed by the Archean eon at 3.8 Ga. [2]: 145 The oldest rocks found on Earth date to about 4.0 Ga, and the oldest detrital zircon crystals in rocks to about 4.4 Ga, [34] [35] [36] soon after the formation of Earth's crust and Earth itself.
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