WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! AIIEEEEEE!!!...just going to take a while though...
[quoteurl=http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5839172%5E663,00.html]End of the world just 7.5 billion years away
By MICHELLE POUNTNEY
15jan03
THE end of the world has begun but it will be 7.5 billion years before happens.
The process of Earth devolving into a burned-out cinder to be eventually swallowed by the sun is under way.
Scientists from the University of Washington have placed earth's "day in the sun" at 4.30am to correspond with its 4.5 billion year age.
By 5am the billion year reign of animals and plants will end.
At 8am the oceans will vapourise.
At noon and after 12 billion years of being, the expanding sun will engulf Earth.
"The disappearance of our planet is still 7.5 billion years away but people really should consider the fate of our world and have a realistic understanding of where we are going," said astrophysicist Donald Brownlee.
In a book The Life and Death of Planet Earth, Dr Brownlee and paleontologist Peter Ward explain how microbes preceded complex life on Earth, and would probably outlast it.
"The last life may look much like the first life. A single-celled bacterium, survivor and descendant of all that came before," they wrote.
But eventually even the surviving microbes "will be seared out of existence".
"We live in a fabulous place at a fabulous time.
"It's a healthy thing for people to realise what a treasure this is in space and time and fully appreciate and protect their environment as much as possible," Dr Brownlee said.
"The sun gave life and ultimately it will bring death," Dr Brownlee said. [/quoteurl]
[quoteurl=http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5839172%5E663,00.html]End of the world just 7.5 billion years away
By MICHELLE POUNTNEY
15jan03
THE end of the world has begun but it will be 7.5 billion years before happens.
The process of Earth devolving into a burned-out cinder to be eventually swallowed by the sun is under way.
Scientists from the University of Washington have placed earth's "day in the sun" at 4.30am to correspond with its 4.5 billion year age.
By 5am the billion year reign of animals and plants will end.
At 8am the oceans will vapourise.
At noon and after 12 billion years of being, the expanding sun will engulf Earth.
"The disappearance of our planet is still 7.5 billion years away but people really should consider the fate of our world and have a realistic understanding of where we are going," said astrophysicist Donald Brownlee.
In a book The Life and Death of Planet Earth, Dr Brownlee and paleontologist Peter Ward explain how microbes preceded complex life on Earth, and would probably outlast it.
"The last life may look much like the first life. A single-celled bacterium, survivor and descendant of all that came before," they wrote.
But eventually even the surviving microbes "will be seared out of existence".
"We live in a fabulous place at a fabulous time.
"It's a healthy thing for people to realise what a treasure this is in space and time and fully appreciate and protect their environment as much as possible," Dr Brownlee said.
"The sun gave life and ultimately it will bring death," Dr Brownlee said. [/quoteurl]
