Earth is changing constantly, every second, every hour. But we do not notice it being too small events. Even in our lifetime we hardly notice any perceptible change that affects us drastically. It is here that we make the biggest mistake that it will remain the same way for eternity. But we all also know that it is not the case - for us, for earth, and for this universe.
Today I will present the possible changes that are going to happen in the future in the grandest scale of events as expected by our present level of understanding. Also remember that the journey till now has been only 13.8 billion years which is peanuts compared to what lies ahead.
We are now in the Anthropocene era, an era which simply means that we humans have the ability to make a significant impact on our planet.
About 6 centuries from now that is around the year 2700 the magnetic field of the earth is likely to begin to flip.
Approx. 5000AD- drastic rise in sea levels
Approx. 7000 AD- A 30 meter diameter asteroid will hit earth.
Approx. 10500 AD- Star Antares about 554 light years away will go supernova. It is the 15th brightest star in night sky.
Approx. 15000 AD- Sahara desert will be tropical again.
Approx. 40000 AD- Voyager 1 will pass a nearby star.
Approx. 64000 AD- the interglacial period will end.
Approx. 96000 AD- super massive volcanic eruptions will begin leading to creation of new island chains.
Approx. 1,000,000 AD – The Apollo footprints on moon will fade away.
Approx. 1,600,000 AD- Betelgeuse will go supernova.
Approx. 2,700,000 AD – the stone monuments will start to erode away.
Approx. 9,000,000 AD- Earth will be subjected to gamma ray radiation bursts.
Approx. 13,000,000 AD- the moons of Mars will disintegrate and form a ring around Mars.
Approx. 27,000,000 AD- the rings of Saturn will start to disintegrate and vanish.
Approx. 74,000,000 AD- a major asteroid impact will happen.
Approx. 165,000,000 AD- The rearrangement of the continents into a super continent will take place.
Approx. 460,000,000 AD- The sun’s luminosity will start to increase, marking the beginning of the sun’s end.
Approx. 615,000,000 AD- Photosynthesis will begin to stop.
Approx. 860,000,000 AD- All plant life will cease to exist.
Approx. 1,200,000,000 AD – the oceans and seas will start to evaporate.
Approx. 2,900,000,000 AD all life forms will end on earth.
Approx. 3,000,000,000 AD- The Sun will start to expand and will ultimately destroy earth.
Approx. 11 billion years- The Sun becomes a white dwarf.
Approx. 1 trillion years- the stars begin to die and ultimately no new stars will get created.
Approx. 50 trillion years- the last of the red dwarfs will fade away. With the death of the last star the universe will be eternal darkness and the degenerate era will start. Only some white dwarfs using the last drops of its fuel will provide some pale illumination like that of a full moon.
Approx. 1 billion trillion years- By accident the collision of 2 brown dwarf stars may create an accidental new star. Otherwise only the collision of two dead stars may create some light. Any surviving life if surviving till then by any chance will have to take refuge around these stars.
Approx. 10 trillion trillion years- All stars will become black dwarf barely emitting any light.
Approx. 9 thousand trillion trillion years- Any object that has not escaped our galaxy will be pulled into the black hole at the center of the galaxy. The age of the black holes begin.
Approx. 1 million trillion trillion years- Any exotic advanced life form if somehow surviving till then will have only the rotational energy of these black holes.
Approx. 50 billion trillion trillion years- The universe will be accelerating faster may be faster than the speed of light.
By that point of time it is expected that atoms will also start decaying.
Approx. 5 trillion trillion years- Proton may start decaying and fall apart though this theory is still not proven till now. All matter then will cease to exist. What began from energy will fall back to energy.
On the grandest scale of events time has just begun to tick and if we compare this time scale with human life then the universe is just coming out of the womb. Most part of the life of universe will be cold empty and dark.
The universe gives only a small window of time for life as we know to survive. 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the fraction of the universe time is available for any type of life form to evolve and survive and then perish.
Approx. 1 trillion trillion trillion trillion years- Black holes are now the fundamental energy of the universe. Now the merger of black holes are the only events that take place.
Approx. 800 thousand trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years- Black holes will also start evaporating and start vanishing into explosions of massive scale. As they start to explode they will lit up the sky for the last time like fireworks.
Even as the last black holes are going the universe keeps on expanding due to some unknown force which we don’t understand fully now. Some call it dark energy.
1 million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years. The universe keeps on expanding till forever may be due to this dark energy. Pure, cold, dark space devoid of any matter and only energy, expanding forever. Unless we understand this energy fully or anything else which we have still not found out, we may not know whether it will also decay at some point of time leading to the big crunch. Or it may get boosted leading to the big rip.
This may be the outcome of this universe and there may be multiple universe, some of which having that window of life. Some expect that there may be a way to escape from this universe before it reaches entropy. Some say that there may be a possibility to create our own baby universe. Some say we are missing something, the seed that will lead to the creation of another universe with a similar timeline. The possibilities are endless and unknown.
So our life is both precious as well as trivial, a combination of contradiction. We still don't know about afterlife except our belief or disbelief. This opens up the possibility of living a reckless life or a meaningful life, if we are to live only once. The choice is ours.
We are all in this journey together with all our commonality and differences which our mind can think of. During this journey we will come closer sometimes and will be far apart sometimes but we will never be separate from each other- ever. For we have been destined to be a co traveler till the universe do us apart. We may not know each other ever but we know that you are there somewhere all through the journey.
Thank you Telesfor sir.