Apocalyptic Predictions: What Astronomers Foresee for the End of the World

The End of the World: What Will Happen When the Sun Dies?

The end of the world has often been the protagonist of fanciful predictions whenever a rare phenomenon occurs on Earth.
The last time an event was compared to a possible end of the world was just a few days ago, during the total solar eclipse that affected Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
However, aside from the unique spectacle of the Moon aligning completely between the Sun and Earth, nothing else happened.

But for scientists, studying and understanding when and if the end of the world might happen is a challenge to pursue.
This is what researchers at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom are also wondering about.
Starting from a certainty, namely that the Sun will not last forever but will eventually extinguish, they are asking themselves what consequences there could be for the planets and the Earth itself.
Could the end of the Sun also lead to the end of the existence of Earth? Here’s the answer they have tried to provide.

The Death of the Sun: A Closer Look

According to scientists, in 5 billion years, the Sun will exhale its last breath.
Its fuel will run out, and the Sun will start to swell, transforming into a red giant star.
It will then gradually lose its mass, and after its outer shell has been swept away, only a white dwarf surrounded by gas will remain.
This is the scenario that scientists have hypothesized for the Sun by studying the behavior of other white dwarfs.

Specifically, three white dwarfs have been studied by scientists for 17 years.
The first one, ZTF J0328−1219, remained stable for a long time but underwent a serious catastrophic event in 2010.
Another one, ZTF J0923+4236, darkened irregularly every two months.
The third one, WD 1145+017, showed significant variations in the number, shape, and depth of transits, indicating the unpredictability of these celestial bodies, making every imagination complex.

The Fate of Earth After the Sun’s Demise

What scientists have wondered is what will happen to Earth when the Sun ceases to exist.
Will it survive without its star? According to scientists at the University of Warwick, Earth will become completely uninhabitable.
The prediction is that during the expansion phase, the Sun will certainly engulf Mercury and Venus.
Will the same fate also befall Earth? It will undoubtedly become uninhabitable, but it is not certain that it will escape the fate that will happen to Mercury and Venus.
This will depend on how much mass the Sun loses.
In any case, it will lose its atmosphere and oceans in a scenario where it will be impossible for any form of life to exist.

Scientists have reached this conclusion by analyzing transits around white dwarfs.
Those approaching white dwarfs, the enormous gravity tends to break these bodies into increasingly smaller pieces until all that remains is dust that will then fall onto the white dwarfs themselves.

It is expected, however, that Mars and the four giant gas planets in our solar system, namely Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, will survive and continue to orbit the Sun with a future as a white dwarf.