Have you ever fantasized that the Earth will one day be destroyed? If you know that the earth has a history of 4.5 billion years since its birth, how long can it still exist? There may not be enough time left for humanity!
Earth doesn't always exist
The formation of the Earth
About 5 billion years ago, a Sun-like star erupted in a stellar cloud, forming a giant ring of gas called the Protosolar Nebula.
The regions closest to the Sun were first aggregated by moons to form planets such as Mars, Mercury and Venus.
solar system
The Earth is located about 150 million kilometers away from the Sun, so in the process of planet formation, the Earth faces a series of cold, friction and energy challenges.
When those smaller planets hit Earth, they began to form Earth by releasing energy to make Earth's surface smoother and more round.
Weather changes and changes in global temperature followed, when the Earth was undergoing brief periods of reconstituted materials and early gamma rays, very hot.
Gamma bursts
Since then, the outer core has gradually begun to form, and the Earth's interior is divided into three levels: mantle, outer core and core, and after natural thermodynamic changes, the depth and accumulation of the Earth's internal structure become fixed.
Among them, the core is the deepest region of the center of the earth, it is composed of the metals iron and nickel, which are the most important on the earth, and the formation of the core is one of the longest and most difficult processes.
According to statistics, the formation time of the core is about 4.5 billion years, and after a long evolution, the energy released by smaller meteorites and comets hitting the Earth is no longer enough to affect it.
About 3.8 billion years ago, Earth's atmosphere began to form, and scientists believe that the atmosphere is formed by chemical reactions caused by water and elements implanted in it.
Earth's atmosphere
Over time, the atmosphere on Earth's surface has been reconstructed by powerful chemicals, such as molecules necessary for life, including water, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia.
This formation method is only one of the most well-documented conjectures in the scientific community, and there are many reasons for the formation of the earth, which is difficult to list.
Since it has a history of 4.5 billion years from the beginning of its birth, how long does it have left?
How long does Earth live?
We must not simply come up with an answer to this question, but explore it from many aspects.
First of all, the life of the earth is closely related to the life of the sun, in the life of the sun, in the next 4 billion years, the brightness of the sun will gradually increase, the radiation exposure temperature will also increase, the temperature increase may cause the earth's oceans to dry up, the atmosphere is weak or lose oxygen, putting humans and ecosystems at risk.
Earth and Sun
The background of the movie "The Wandering Earth" is that because the sun is aging rapidly and is expanding into a red giant, human beings have to propose the Wandering Earth plan.
But even if the sun becomes very large in the future, Earth's lifespan can last for billions of years, depending on the energy and matter inside the Earth.
Second, the lifespan of the Earth is also closely related to the activities inside the Earth.
The earth's interior has huge thermal energy, which leads to tectonic tectonic movements or volcanic eruptions and other geological disasters, but these changes do not mean that the earth's lifespan will be reduced, but in environmental reconstruction, it can still maintain an overall stable state.
Earth structure
Therefore, the lifespan of the Earth is also closely related to the energy and chemical elements they are made of.
In addition, the lifespan of the earth is also related to the activities of humans and other living things.
Imbalances in the number of human and other living things could lead to adverse events such as climate change and the destruction of marine natural ecosystems, thereby shortening the life span of the planet.
If several successive equilibrium links are not restored, then human civilization may be at risk.
Moreover, the international situation is so tense today, and the nuclear threat is also an important factor in the influence.
In response to the crisis brought by humanity, some forward-thinking entrepreneurs are already embarking on interstellar migration.
Musk
Musk, for example, has invested heavily in space companies and is known as a pioneer in commercial space.
In short, the life of the earth is only a million years, hundreds of millions of years, and billions of years long, and then "the end of life".
The evolution of planetary life cycles
Like humans, planets have a life cycle, from birth to stability to aging and finally death.
Needless to say, the structure of the planet has basically ceased to change since the stable period, its chemical and physical properties have been completed, and the internal temperature is roughly controllable.
Taking the Earth as an example, during this period, the planet has a huge rocky core and a relatively thin surface, and the emergence and development of life is also closely related to the characteristics of the planet.
Earth structure
Over the billions of years of this period, atmospheres on the planet's surface gradually formed, mountains rose on land, and ecosystems scaled up in the oceans and on the ground.
This phase will last for billions of years until the planet's internal thermodynamic evolution stops completely, bringing the planet to the next stage.
After a steady state phase, the planet enters a phase called senescence.
During aging, the planet's internal temperature begins to drop further, and one of the signs is that the surface rock becomes easy to fall off, which is the cause of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and solar-terrestrial magnetic storms.
Volcanic structures
These natural phenomena are related to the movement of internal matter or changes in internal structure, and long-term wear and tear affect the surface of the planet, making it gradually thin and weaken.
As the planet's internal heat is lost, the frequency of magmatic activity slows down, the nature of rocks gradually becomes unstable, and the internal structure is prone to deformation.
magma
In this way, the matter and energy within the planet will be lost to the outside world, making the planet as a whole extremely vulnerable.
The death period of a planet usually occurs after internal heat is lost and it ceases to be active.
During the death period, the surface temperature of the planet gradually decreases, the chemical and physical properties change, the volume becomes smaller, the planetary material gradually overflows and disperses, and eventually it may completely decompose into dust or become part of other planets and moons.
Planetary decomposition
Typically, this process takes tens of billions of years, and only a handful of planets eventually survive.
Different types of planets may evolve differently, for example, Jupiter is a gas planet that does not evolve a solid surface, so it may merge with other nebulae after death and eventually evolve into a red dwarf.
There are also planets that are ruthlessly devoured by their host stars before they can meet their death.
Some asteroids change their state during impact, and some enter the aging phase earlier.
The asteroid hits the Earth
In short, the process of planetary evolution is affected by many factors, just like life, no one knows tomorrow and accidents, which will come first?
What can we do about this?
What humans can do
However, we should not be too pessimistic, in the absence of accidents, the remaining life of the earth is still very long, giving us plenty of time to develop technology.
At present, human beings can do very little, but as long as they concentrate on the development of science and technology to explore the mysteries of the universe, they will definitely be able to walk out of the earth en masse one day in the future and no longer rely on the parent planet.
The earth is both a home and a cage
In addition, we should also pay attention to protecting the ecological environment of the earth, as mentioned before, the life span of the earth is closely related to human activities, which is the best we can do at present.
Resources
Universe Today《What is Earth's Axial Tilt? - Universe Today 》
The earth also has a "pulse". 《 Heilongjiang Science 》
Bowring S A , Housh T .《The Earth's early evolution》[J]. Science