2010
07.26
07.26
I was under the impression that the Earth had about another 4 or 5 billion years to go before the Sun went nova ending all life on the planet. In wandering around the Wikipedia I now learn — “About 2.1 billion years from now, the continual increase of the Sun’s radiation will cause the Earth’s oceans to vaporize . . .”
It looks like Robert Frost gets his wish sooner than I feared:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice
Well, that’s more time than I recall being given not long ago–only about 1 Gyr. But even now it’s possible in theory to move Earth’s orbit outward with a crude momentum-transfer scheme involving an asteroid & Jupiter. I wouldn’t worry about it.