Will People Somehow Be Able To Get Away From The Sun?

Question

Assuming humans are still around, I would like to know if we will be able to somehow escape or protect the Earth when the sun starts to die out. I'm guessing that if we're still around by then, we'll have some pretty advanced technology to protect us or move to other planets.It's kind of weird to think that the planet might not always be around. I know this is a long time away, way after I'm already dead, but I'm curious and a little scared and want to find out if people will survive the sun's death. Because, humans aren't going to go down so easily, right?

Does anyone have any good, serious answers that aren't a load of b.s.?

Answer 1

there are a few diffrent theories on how we could live (And given this much time it's definately possible.... but would probably be a task we'd have to pass down for generations before complete)

one states that we borrow one of (i believe jupiter's) moons and use it's gravity to pull on our orbit, making it slightly bigger.... over time, we could theoretically move as far away as we wanted....

this seems the most likely to me of how to actually move the earth... (i don't nessicarily mean the most likely is using jupiter's moon, just using a large bodies gravity in general to pull the earth's orbit to a safer zone)

of course the most likely is just moving on to another planet, if in our own solar system we'd have to terraform one of them... but in that much time i'm positive we will have mastered inter-stellar flight allowing us to travel to other star systems to find a more suitable home...

Answer 2

I don't have an optimistic opinion about this subject. Thirty years ago, I was upbeat about space colonization. I was sure humanity would travel between the stars with terrestrial plants and animals, and take them to new planets, thereby to gain immortality for the life that arose on Earth. But at just the moment things should have really gotten moving, all the most able governments decided that there were other things that they wanted to do. Now comes Peak Oil and the subsequent decline of terrestrial energy resources. I'm afraid we might have locked ourselves out of the house, so to speak, with regard to colonizing space.

Answer 3

I'm not sure where Gary B gets his information, but it's mostly complete nonsense. The Sun doesn't have anywhere near enough mass to go supernova, it is physically impossible for it to die in this manner.

Answer 4

The earth faces extinction from the steady brightening of the sun.  Unless something is done all surface life will be dead in about 1 billion years.  Complete extinction, following the evaporation of the oceans, will require an additional billion years.

Although it sounds absurd, it is possible to move the earth outwards to avoid this particular fate, and the method really isn't all that difficult.  It requires the use of a large asteroid being directed toward earth (but not hitting) every thousand years or so.  The gravitational tug will be enough to pull the earth slowly away from its current orbit.  This technique requires a civilization with an extraordinarily long life-span and technological sophistication.  One s***w-up and Earth is toast.  

This method also removes the earth from the suns embrace 5 billion years from now when it expands in its red giant phase.  Currently the sun is expected to swallow the earth.  If we move the planet out to the orbit of Mars we could still have the old homestead for another 3  or 4 billion years.  After the sun ends its red giant stage it will begin to die, and it wont do it quietly.  In a number of stages it will begin to toss off large amounts of its mass.  When this happens there will be no place in the solar system to hide.  If we haven't mastered the means to cross the interstellar gulf or do something else exotic, we will be extinct.  

Answer 5

No.

The ONLY possible way is to leave the planet. In fact, the only possible way is to leave the SOLAR SYSTEM.  

We would have to go to another star.  I think Aplha Centauri, the closest start to us, would be too close, and would probably be affected by our sun dying.  Maybe not immediately, but if our sun "explodes" like they think it will, the shock wave might destroy Alpha Centauri with in a few years (20-50) after the explosion.

What you don't seem to realize is the immense, absolutely huge, almost unmeasurable power fo the sun!  In order to protect ourselves from it, we would need even MORE power.  That means we would need a second sun -- which just isn't possible.

Sorry, the earth will become toast IF  things go like the scientiest say.

But you won't be here, so why should you be scared?  By that time there will be NOTHING left of you but dust. That time is SOOOOooo far away that you could be the most famous person in history but no one would rmember you.

The more important problem is that you need to ralize that YOU live for the earth, not that the Earth lives for you.  You need to do you part to take care of it. You need to stop depending on oil for your power, and start looking for other sources, including nuclear power.  You need to conserve resources like lakes and oceasn and treas and wheat fields, and make sure that the ones you have stay clean and usable.

And you also need to understand politics.  You need to understand what it take to defend you country and the rest of the world, and when you're old enough to vote you need to vote for leaders that know when and how to fight against political bullies who develope scary weapons and threaten to hold the world hostage until they get what they want. You need to vote for leaders who can do more than just 'talk'.

If you, and other like you, do not do these things, the earth will be destroyed LONG before the sun explodes.

Answer 6

The sun's death will *not* pose a problem for humanity.

Within a hundred years, we will be able to send basic colonist ships with crew in stasis to other star systems.

Within five hundred years, we'll have colonies on all the planets and moons in the Solar System.

Within a thousand years, we'll have colonies all around us in our local area of galaxy, which means large areas of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.  This will also mean we will be living in an intragalactic society with any alien species we meet, if any.

Within five thousand years, we will be able to disassemble planets and build enormous structures like Dysonspheres.

Within ten thousand years, we will be able to build, destroy, and move entire stars and star systems at will.  We will have spread throughout the entire galaxy.  Earth could be completely destroyed at this point and humanity as a whole would barely notice it.

That's ten thousand years from now.  That only *one hundred thousandth* of the time from now until the Sun's supposed aging would pose a problem for we humans today.

People tend to *greatly* underestimate what our technology is going to allow us to do with just a tiny fraction of time on astronomical levels.

Answer 7

Actually, just 1.1 billion years from now, the sun will increase it's brightness by 10%. It sounds like a small amount, but by that time it could dry up all the waters on the Earth. A probability that human life will perish. Unless technology has improved enough, and scientists has taken action about this situation.

Answer 8

Well, we have about 5 billion years left.  Considering all the gains we made just in the last 100 years, it wouldn't be so far fetched to assume we could create some technology to save us.  Maybe develop some means of using the sun's final days to power a distant space station?  Of course, I personally don't think we have a chance to make it 5 billion years...Maybe we'll live for another 100.