oes the earth have an expiration date?

[Lark]

I'm watching 2012 and I dont believe the fairly flimbsy story that if the planets align in a particular way the earth will fall to pieces but I got to ask is there any evidence to suggest that the earth or even the human species has an expiration date?

Does it change anything if it does?

 

[IZthe411]

It does if you want people to buy your product.

 

[Randomnity]

Not in the near future (that is predictable - there could always be a random asteroid coming, the sun randomly exploding, nuclear holocaust, aliens invading, or whatever else you can dream of). If you throw god (or gods) into the mix there's another factor capable (presumably) of destroying the world. Otherwise there's the sun dying in however many millions of years.

What you're asking, no, I don't believe we have any knowledge suggesting that.

 

[IZthe411]

It's not going anywhere.

 

[Lark]

I dont know how the D got dropped from Does but it did.

Yeah the Neutrinos (spelling) from the sun arent going to mess us up then? What about the decline of the male chromosone (spelling again) or even just insufficient diversity in the gene pool?

 

[Andy]

Well, the theories indicate that the sun will change over time, growing until the earth is destryed. That is most definite expairy date, I think. Certainly, you'll expire if you are hanging around at the time. However, it seems that changes in the heat output will kill most of the complex life in just 500 million years, so take that into account in your budgeting plans. Does it mater? I guess that depends on whether you think we mater and if we are still here. Personally, I'm egocentric enough to want my own species to survive and perpetuate, if only because I'm part of it.

 

[Mole]

For homo sapiens, the Earth doesn't have an expiration date, as we are a large multi-celled species, and such large multi-celled species have a very short evolutionary life span.

The Earth will last at least five thousand million years, and we have only been here for two hundred thousand years. And it is almost certain that homo sapiens will become extinct before the Earth expires.

 

[Cephalonimbus]

Eventually, everything expires. That being said, it's very unlikely that humans will be around to witness the event that will end the world. We're weak, flimsy creatures with self-destructive tendencies. Earth on the other hand, is one tough motherfucker.

An asteroid impact severe enough to wipe out all life is just one of the many scenarios that could cause our demise, but this wouldn't mean the end of the world itself. According to the most popular hypothesis on the formation of the moon, a celestial body roughly the size of Mars crashed into Earth billions of years ago... In comparison: a celestial body with a diameter of a measly 10 miles could easily wipe out the human race, if it were to crash into Earth. It takes a lot more than a little mass extinction event to ruffle those feathers.

As for the planets aligning... i hardly think it will be the end of the world, but i am going to order one of these, just in case:

 

[Stanton Moore]

One day the sun will expand and swallow us as part of it's life cycle. That's in several billion years. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Redbone]

It'll happen sooner than the sun can become a red giant (that is on Sol's life cycle, right?). I don't think we'll be around long enough to inhabit Titan or one of the other outer planets or moons. Humans are incredibly self-destructive. Are we the only species that deliberately fouls its own nest...repeatedly? Smart enough to be selfishly self-destructive.

 

[Such Irony]

One day the sun will expand and swallow us as part of it's life cycle. That's in several billion years. I wouldn't worry about it.

Yes, but I am optimistic that the human race will develop the technology to colonize other planets orbiting other stars and make living there habitable far before the sun's expiration date. That is, if we don't get killed off on planet Earth first.

Either humans die off as a species or we gradually evolve into another species no longer recognizable as homo sapiens.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

I'm not sure if a planets core is the exact same as a stars, but if the atoms in the core eventually collide into each other (fusion) and all particles reach the heaviest they can (iron-Fe) then the earth itself will explode and we will become the elements that stars create when they fission. Of course I have no evidence and am using a star to compare us (earth), but if this isn't true for the earth, I know it's true for the sun and so yes eventually earth will end.

 

[Amethyst]

The earth will end when it wants to...people can't decide that (unless they use the diplomatic force of several atomic explosions).

Expiration of Earth = Expiration of Sun is a definite. It could end earlier, but I'm not really sure how it would. It's pretty sturdy.

 

[Mole]

Human Extinction

Homo sapiens has been here for two hundred thousand years, but gene sequencing has told us that one hundred thousand years ago we were down to a mere five thousand individuals. And this means very few breeding pairs. So five thousand years ago we were on the edge of extinction.

So as a species we have already been on the knife-edge of extinction, and this is the normal pattern for a large, multi-celled species.

 

[Mole]

The Apocalypse and Revelations

The end of the Earth is called, "The Apocalypse". And the apocalypse is a religious concept expressed in my favourite and last book of the Bible called, "Revelations".

However it is people of the Book, who believe in the apocalypse because because books are linear and sequential with a beginning, a middle and an end. And so we conclude that as a book ends, so the Earth ends.

Spoken cultures are not linear and sequential rather they see the world as the eternal return. For spoken cultures see the world as recurring cycles without end.

So the people of the Book are fascinated by the end of the Earth, the apocalypse, because we are imbued with our religion of the Book - even our atheists.

 

[The_Liquid_Laser]

You can still eat food after it's passed its expiration date. It's just not as good for you. Earth is kind of the same way.

 

[Cephalonimbus]

You can still eat food after it's passed its expiration date. It's just not as good for you. Earth is kind of the same way.

That's an interesting idea... i once found a meatball in the fridge that looked very much like Earth, all blue and green and with its own ecosystem. Does this mean that our planet has already expired and this is why the human race is so sick in many ways?

 

[Amethyst]

That's an interesting idea... i once found a meatball in the fridge that looked very much like Earth, all blue and green and with its own ecosystem. Does this mean that our planet has already expired and this is why the human race is so sick in many ways?

Possibly, we could easily just be those little bugs that go after your rotting meatball after a while, but if you do anything drastic to that meatball, they'll all go running.

 

[The_Liquid_Laser]

That's an interesting idea... i once found a meatball in the fridge that looked very much like Earth, all blue and green and with its own ecosystem. Does this mean that our planet has already expired and this is why the human race is so sick in many ways?

I don't think we can say the Earth has expired until the world population starts to decline.

 

[Thisica]

I'm not sure if a planets core is the exact same as a stars, but if the atoms in the core eventually collide into each other (fusion) and all particles reach the heaviest they can (iron-Fe) then the earth itself will explode and we will become the elements that stars create when they fission. Of course I have no evidence and am using a star to compare us (earth), but if this isn't true for the earth, I know it's true for the sun and so yes eventually earth will end.

Planet cores don't have the energy necessary for nuclear fusion. They are usually hot due to the rotation of the planet and the decay of heavier elements.

See...once a star reaches Fe in its fusion cycle, the binding energy is at its maximum. To fuse Fe into anything more heavy requires energy input. That's what supernovae produce.