Taking the (very) long view!
As described in my previous post (The Future of the Sun), in about 5 billion years time the Sun will swell up to at least 100 times its current diameter and this will make the surface of the Earth far too hot to sustain life.
What Sunrise might look like when the Sun is a red giant.
This post discusses other natural events which could spell the end of life on Earth, long before the Sun becomes a red giant.
Gradual increase in the Sun’s brightness
Astrophysicists predict that the Sun is gradually increasing in brightness by 1% every hundred million years. This increase in solar output will, over the long term, cause a gradual warming of the Earth’s surface.
This is what will happen:
- The increased energy from the Sun will cause a warming of the Earth’s surface.
- Because water evaporates more rapidly at higher temperatures, there will be an…
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