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In the last century, the advance of human technology and industry has come far enough that we
can now, for the first time, threaten our own existence. But the continuing survival of humanity is
not dependent entirely upon our actions alone. There has always been, and will always be,
however small the chances are of occurrence, natural catastrophes with differing damage
potentials, from threatening small areas, to life itself. Planet earth is more resilient than
humanity, and has weathered countless events that if happening today, would annihilate all
creatures on the planet. But as scientific understanding grows, so does our awareness of
scenarios that threaten the continued existence of our tough planet. It goes without saying that
the chances of most of these scenarios actually happening are so remote as to be nearly
impossible, and many of the solutions offered aren’t even close to technologically viable within
the near future. However it would be foolish to discount such scenarios and solutions, nobody
can predict the future.
This gravitational process could be applied to Earth. An object that disrupted the orbit of earth
significantly enough could cause enough of a change in distance to alter climate dramatically.
An object with greater mass still could cause our planet to be ejected from the sun’s
gravitational pull. Life could not survive the travel through interstellar space as it has evolved
specifically in the sun’s warmth.
It is known that Stellar-mass black holes travel through the Milky Way. Therefore there is a
chance that one could pass by our solar system. One of these objects would have enough mass
to cause all sorts of gravitational havoc, and because of its invisible nature (unless it had
acquired an accretion disk), would be extremely hard for us to detect. However, significant
gravitational interactions between the Sun and any object of stellar mass are expected to occur
only once every 1019 years. It is believed extremely unlikely that we will endure the effects of a
black hole before the Sun exterminates life on Earth.(J. Binney, 1987). Much larger mass black
holes, former Quasars ejected from galactic mergers at speeds of around 10 million miles per
hour(Than, 2007) are also believed to exist, and because of their speed, mass and angle of
ejection, could orbit outside of the galactic plane, dipping in and out of the galaxy as their orbits
take them. Gravitational interaction between one of these former Quasars and our solar system
could be dramatic, enough to gravitationally capture our sun.
Interaction between stellar mass objects also produces another apocalyptic possibility.
Hypothetically, if a passing star where to collide directly with the sun, the merger would cause a
dramatic increase in the rate of fusion, if the colliding star had enough mass, the merger could
create a supernova as the sun collapsed under this new gravitational instability(Sanders, 1970),
this would definitely destroy the planet outright.
Solutions?: Die?
CHANGING SOLAR ENERGY OUTPUT
As far as we are aware today, this scenario is certain, but estimated to occur slowly, over
billions of years. Our Sun is currently in the Main Sequence of its life, which means that it is
fusing hydrogen to helium. Over the last 4.5billion years life has adapted to the conditions this
creates on earth. However, once Sol depletes its supply of hydrogen, it will begin to fuse helium,
and change in structure to a red giant star, brightening and increasing in size 100 times. Initially
the increased solar output would increase temperatures upon the earth’s surface, disrupting the
ecosystems and weather systems of the planet. Significant reduction of the amount of carbon
dioxide, caused by a planet that is getting drier, would not allow for photosynthesis, and plants
would die. This would cause a huge reduction in the amount of oxygen available; then animals
would die. As the sun’s output increases, the oceans would begin to evaporate into the
atmosphere, intensifying the greenhouse effect and absorbing more of the already significant
solar output. By now, temperature change will have rendered the planet completely
uninhabitable as conditions begin to mirror those found on Venus, which suffered the same fate
due to its proximity to the Sun. As solar output rises, the very surface of the earth itself would
begin to melt. Eventually, the earth would either be swallowed completely by the increasing size
of the sun, or would increase its orbital distance as the sun’s gravitational pull weakens, due to
the loss of solar mass.
Solutions: In this situation there are two options, to either move the species to a more
hospitable region, such as a mass migration to another planet. The more challenging solution to
would be to directly alter the sun itself, this could be done by changing the predominant fusion
process back to hydrogen, there would be no lack of fuel, as atomic hydrogen is the most
abundant element in the universe. The challenge would stem from the star itself, how could we
insert energy into a body that radiates energy so powerfully?
HOSTILE ETI
Humanity has been broadcasting radio waves indiscriminately into space since the end of the
19th century. Many SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) organizations have also made
efforts to communicate, by beaming concentrated microwave messages towards star systems
that appear suitable. A number of SETI scientists criticize this, claiming it unwise to transmit to a
species that we cannot know the motives of. Also, recent publications of US governmental
documents suggest that the alien species are taken as a credible threat.(Andrews, 2008). If we
are to assume that an alien civilization is capable of detecting our transmissions and travelling
the incredible distance to reach earth in a timely fashion, we can assume their technology is
vastly superior to ours. If this race for some reason chose to engage us in conflict, we could also
reasonably assume that their superior technology would prevail, as the lessons of our own
history have taught us.
Solutions: This scenario allows for possibly the most unpopular solution humanity could ever
devise, which would be to stop using technologies that transmit microwave and radio waves as
a by-product of their use, this information blackout would silence our planet, but would not stop
the continued passage of messages transmitted in years past, which will have travelled further
than 90 light years. Despite the fact that alien life has not been found to exist, initial plans for
planetary defence have been considered should the possibility of interstellar war emerge, based
on a detailed analysis of modern warfare today and projected weapons developments over the
coming decades.(Taylor, 2006)
Golante, H. (2005). Biological Effects of Gamma-Ray Bursts: distances for severe damage
on the biota. eprint arXiv:astro-ph/0512013 .
Marcus, M. C. (2005). Earth Impact Effects Program. Retrieved April 18th, 2008, from
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=6163
Mellot, L. L. (2004). Did a gamma-ray burst initiate the late Ordovician mass extinction?
International Journal of Astrobiology , 55-61.
Than. (2007, May 29). Wandering Black Holes Found to Pack Their Own Lunches.
Retrieved April 18, 2008, from Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275452,00.html