• Question: when does the world end?

    Asked by zackybeyy to timcraggs, Stuart, Mark, Jo, Donna on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by leejp02, xxtinkerbellxx, el1234, talwartg.
    • Photo: Donna MacCallum

      Donna MacCallum answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      when it goes boom! – sorry, I don;t know when the world will end, but I don’t personally think that it wil be any time soon

    • Photo: Mark Lancaster

      Mark Lancaster answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      For sure in about 4-6 billion years time when the fuel powering the sun (mostly hydrogen) runs out – before that it will get hot. As humans we’ve been around for 200,000 years and been quite inventive so we have 4 billion to get our act together and work out how to get to another planet surrounding another sun-like star… it will have to involve some clever tunneling through space-time since the closest amenable stars are millions of years away (travelling at the speed of light – which we can’t…!).

      On a shorter timescale I think the issue of population growth and dwindling natural resources is far more serious and that could see us extinct well before the sun goes out… but again that is something that is partially under out control..

    • Photo: Tim Craggs

      Tim Craggs answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      The world will end when the sun has burned up all its fuel, which I think Mark we tell us is in about 4 billion years time, is that right?

      That is barring any supernatural intervention.

    • Photo: Joanna Buckley

      Joanna Buckley answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      About 4 or 5 billion years time the sun will run out of fuel. We’ve not got much to worry about. Unless you believe this…

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287271/World-plunged-crisis-2014-Cambridge-expert-predicts-Doomsday.html

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