Planet Earth could be burned to the ground, and humanity will inevitably die in about 5 billion years, scientists from Belgium said on Thursday. In their opinion, the size of the Sun by this time will increase by about 100 times in comparison with the current size and the energy emanating from it will in any case bombard the Earth, Mercury and Venus.
“In five billion years, the Sun will turn into a red giant star, swelling more than a hundred times its current size,” said Professor Leen Desin, of the University of Astronomy. 'And over the next two billion years, the Sun will gradually turn into an incredibly dense dwarf. Under the influence of the strongest stellar wind, it (the Sun) will lose its mass at an incredibly fast pace. The end product of evolution, after 7 billion years, will be a tiny white dwarf. It will be the size of the Earth, but much heavier: one teaspoon of this white dwarf's material will weigh about 5 tons. '
The professor also noted that if the death of humanity in 5 billion years is inevitable, then the fate of the planet Earth itself is still in question, since the rocky core of our planet can survive the stage of the red giant and then continue to orbit the white dwarf.
Scientists came to such conclusions on the basis of observations of a star like two drops of water similar to our Sun. Observations of the star located 208 light years from Earth were made with the Alma radio telescope.
“Five billion years ago, this star was an almost perfect twin of our Sun,” said Professor Ward Homan. 'One third of this star's mass has been lost during evolution. The same will happen with our Sun in the very distant future. '
