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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. [109] 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. [110]
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. [112] [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. [114]
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.
After the sun celebrates its 11 billionth birthday, scientists believe it will continue to expand to the point where it is 166 times bigger than it is now.
The book also illustrates Earth's eventual fate by compressing its full 12 billion-year history into 12 hours on a clock, with the first life appearing at 1:00 am, the first animals and plants appearing at 4:00 am, and the present day being 4:29.59 am. The Earth is destroyed by the Sun at "high noon", though animals and plants come to an end by ...
Earth is no stranger to extinctions. As scientists have discerned from fossil records, species on Earth have already passed through five mass extinction events in the planet’s lifetime ...
Known affectionately to scientists as the "boring billion," there was a seemingly endless period in the world's history when the length of a day stayed put.
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 ...