• Question: How many years are roughly left on planet earth?

    Asked by Lilybug005 to David, Eva, Kate, Nicholas, Rachel on 12 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Hello,

      The sun has enough fuel to last for another 5 billion years (5,000,000,000) or so, then it will expand to a size big enough to reach Earth’s orbit, so the planet will be lost. I’m sure by then we will have found a way to travel to other planets, so humans can carry on living.

      If man-made problems like nuclear war or climate change continue, the answer could be much lower though 🙁

    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Hi,

      So I take it you mean how many years of life left on Earth? There’s a number of things that will impact on how long we have left on Earth. One is the sun will eventually expand and swallow the Earth up! But that won’t happen for about 4-5 billion years.

      There’s also the possibility of us being hit by something else flying around in space, like an asteroid. But nobody can predict when that will happen.

      I think the most likely thing though is that we will be the reason why we will have to leave Earth in order for our species to survive. If we carry on as we are we will use up all Earth’s natural resources and we will also run out space. It will be a bit like the film Wall-e – but at least that has a happy ending 🙂

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