Earth EXODUS: Plan to alter Earth’s ORBIT to escape being eaten by dying Sun

[Elderberry]

Express by By Tom Fish 6/10/2019

EARTH’S orbit may one day need to be altered to escape from being devoured by its dying Sun. And an engineer has devised some ingenious solutions for achieving this ambition.

Man-made climate change is an immediate concern, meaning a global warming apocalypse appears increasingly likely. However the planet’s long-term prognosis is even more dire, because the sun will one day run out of fuel and expand, most likely destroying the Earth in five billion years. Moving the Earth to a wider orbit to escape this fiery oblivion may seem like a far-fetched solution, but an engineer has now outlined several theories for escaping this fate.

Scientists know the Sun will one day change from its current state to a red giant, a star far larger than its currently size.

And this expansion will eventually reach Earth’s orbit, rendering it totally uninhabitable in around five billion years.

However, in an extreme case of future planning, University of Glasgow space engineer Dr Matteo Ceriotti has proposed some radical solutions to help Earth change orbit.

The proposals have to be extreme as, for example, the Earth’s mass is so large we do not have enough power to move the planet using conventional rocket propulsion.

The radical ideas are loosely based on current technologies, although it is safe to assume any surviving humans will have significantly advanced science by then.

Dr Ceriotti said: “I have come up with a thought experiment about what we could do with our current technology in order to move the orbit of Earth father away – say towards the orbit of Mars.”

This is approximately 1.5 times the radius of Earth’s current orbit, in order to keep the Earth habitable in the future.

More: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1138008/earth-orbit-change-dying-sun-asteroid-mining-solar-sail-space-news

[Smokin Joe]

I think I'll worry about this in 5 billion years or so.....NOT!

The tech might be useful moving incoming asteroids to a different orbit, though....

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Paint the surface of the Earth white.

[Smokin Joe]

Paint the surface of the Earth white.

That's raysis!

[Hoodat]

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.

[Wingnut]

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.

That is Time for you.

[Hoodat]

Billy Thorpe  -  Children of the Sun


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[jmyrlefuller]

That'll only buy a few hundred million more years, though. Once that plasma ejects from the Sun and turns it into a white dwarf... then there's no saving this planet. Our only hope will be the Milky Way/Andromeda galactic merger that's on pace to happen right around that time. If by chance a passing star gets close enough to pull Earth into its orbit, and somehow we get drawn into its habitable zone, it might survive. It's such a long shot though that I'm not sure how much good it would be worth.

(But could you imagine the best-case scenario? A red dwarf passes by, pulls Earth into its orbit right at the habitable zone, and life on Earth is saved for tens of billions of more years.)

[Hoodat]

That'll only buy a few hundred million more years, though. Once that plasma ejects from the Sun and turns it into a white dwarf... then there's no saving this planet. Our only hope will be the Milky Way/Andromeda galactic merger that's on pace to happen right around that time. If by chance a passing star gets close enough to pull Earth into its orbit, and somehow we get drawn into its habitable zone, it might survive. It's such a long shot though that I'm not sure how much good it would be worth.

(But could you imagine the best-case scenario? A red dwarf passes by, pulls Earth into its orbit right at the habitable zone, and life on Earth is saved for tens of billions of more years.)

In the red giant scenario, the earth would first have to be transported behind Jupiter to keep the nova explosion from blowing off our entire atmosphere.  While the earth remained in this state waiting for the nova to form, some other heat-light source would have to keep it warm.   Then after the explosion, the earth must find the perfect orbit around the red sun, and our plant life would have to instantly adapt to the new 3,000-day year.  And then there's the moon.  We would have to drag it along as well.

[The_Reader_David]

In the red giant scenario, the earth would first have to be transported behind Jupiter to keep the nova explosion from blowing off our entire atmosphere.  While the earth remained in this state waiting for the nova to form, some other heat-light source would have to keep it warm.   Then after the explosion, the earth must find the perfect orbit around the red sun, and our plant life would have to instantly adapt to the new 3,000-day year.  And then there's the moon.  We would have to drag it along as well.

No, there's no nova phase in the sun's expected life cycle.  It's too small a star.  It just expands to a red giant when the hydrogen in its core is  mostly gone and it starts fusing helium in the core.  The problem is that it will, at that stage, engulf the Earth's current orbit.  Only much more massive stars go nova.

[Joe Wooten]

 

I think I'll worry about this in 5 billion years or so.....NOT!

The tech might be useful moving incoming asteroids to a different orbit, though....