Good news: Doomsday has been postponed
By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 06/01/2002)
THE end is not as nigh as we thought. Scientists have found a mistake in the standard account of the future fate of the solar system and now believe that the Earth will not be destroyed when the Sun runs out of fuel.
For decades, astronomy textbooks have insisted that the Earth will be engulfed in an inferno billions of years from now as the Sun burns up its nuclear fuel and swells to become a gigantic red star.
Surrounded by the searing gas of the Sun's outer atmosphere, the Earth was expected to be dragged down to its doom deep within the Sun.
Now a team of astrophysicists at Sussex University has uncovered a significant flaw in the standard view of how the Sun will evolve, with dramatic consequences for the fate of our planet.
It's hard to believe they made such a mistake...According to the team from Sussex University, however, these calculations missed out a crucial effect: the loss of mass by the ageing Sun as it expands and its gravity weakens.
What a bunch of dummies. I've been sweating over this ever since I learned the Earth would be swallowed up by the sun. Now it's not true. This is outrageous. I'm outraged! Puff.