Posted on 02/24/2008 9:52:08 AM PST by Sub-Driver
doomed to fiery end, experts predict
By Darren Osborne
February 23, 2008 01:00am Article from: The Daily Telegraph
OUR planet faces a fiery doom inside the sun unless future generations work out how to change its orbit.
New calculations by University of Sussex astronomers predict the Earth will be burnt to a cinder then swallowed up by the sun in about 7.6 billion years.
Emeritus reader in astronomy Professor Robert Smith and his team thought they calculated that we may escape destruction but new figures take into account the effect of drag caused by the sun's outer atmosphere.
"We showed previously that, as the sun expanded, it would lose mass in the form of a strong wind, much more powerful than the current solar wind," Professor Smith said.
"This would reduce the gravitational pull of the sun on the Earth, allowing the Earth's orbit to move outwards, ahead of the expanding sun.
"However, the tenuous outer atmosphere of the sun extends a long way beyond its visible surface, and it turns out the Earth would be orbiting within these very low density outer layers."
He said the drag caused by the low-density gas would be enough to cause the planet to drift inward to be consumed by the sun.
However, if Earth remains in its current orbit, life isn't likely to be here in 7.6 billion years.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
BBAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.....these people are HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!
We are doomed, DOOMED!
Dodo: If you weren’t smart enough to plan ahead, then doom on you. Other Dodos: [chanting] Doom on you. Doom on you. Doom on you. Doom on. ...
Islam will have destroyed everything long before then.
Larry Niven had this worked out decades ago.
Bush’s fault!
And it’s ALL Bush’s fault...
The neighborhood will be gone in 50 million years. This 7.6 billion business is to distract us from our impending and much sooner than expected doom. There is in fact no time to waste if we expect to survive and populate the galaxy.
There’s nothing like a good catastrophe every 7.6 billion years to get things all stirred up.
By 12 seconds!
We’ve only got 7.6 billion years ???
gosh I better change my ways now...
Carbon credits, light bulbs, funny fuel...
Dude, you need a vacation. The good guys win.
***
Say, I have to figure out what my IRA will be worth in 7.6bn years...
We better get to work on this right away! If congress allocates 1 cent to this and puts it in CD’s in a billion years we’ll have plenty of money.
Some of us will just leave it up to God and not worry about events way beyond our control. Are we supposed to lose sleep over this theory?
As Carl Sagan would say... billions and billions.
I think the church of Al Gore will solve this crises. Silence all opposition, give money to the cause and don’t worry about understanding, just say “I believe”
Yeah, if Hillary gets elected.
I’ll have to make a note of that in my Palm Pilot. Set an alarm even.
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