- 4014 - EARTH - is doomed? It is just a matter of time. The Sun is burning fuel. It will eventually run out. Just like the fossil fuels on Earth, there is a finite amount. And, when it is gone, it’s gone. In the case of the Sun, we will also need an alternative. What a challenge!
----------------------------------- 4014 - EARTH - is doomed?
- The
hydrogen fuel at the core of the Sun is a fusion furnace that produces helium
and releases Gamma Ray energy. The Gamma
Rays work their way to the surface and are emitted into space as infrared,
light, and ultraviolet radiation.
-
- When
the hydrogen runs out the helium will burn into carbon and the carbon into
oxygen. But, that is about it. The Sun is not big enough to have enough
gravity to continue the fusion process beyond oxygen. The lights will go out. Well, not with out a light show.
-
- As
the fusion process winds down it does not go out quietly. The Sun will get hotter and hotter. At its peak the Sun will be 2,700 times more
luminous than it is today. The flood of
ultraviolet radiation hitting the Earth’s atmosphere will evaporate the
oceans. The increased water vapor in the
atmosphere will create a runaway greenhouse effect turning the Earth into what
Venus is today. Life on Earth will end.
-
- As
the helium is building up at the core of the Sun at the age of 12.2 billion
years the Sun will expand into a Red Giant star. It will swell to a 110 million mile radius.
-
- The
Earth is 93 million miles away from the Sun today. The Sun is about 6 million years old today,
middle aged. The Sun will be blowing off
mass in a Solar Wind which will make it lighter and will allow the planets and
asteroids to move out to new orbits.
Many of the planets, asteroids, comets will be vaporized in the intense
heat. Some will escape into a new
accretion disk still orbiting the Sun.
-
- The
Red Giant star will loose ½ its mass in violent solar winds and pulsations. It
will stop spinning and a White Dwarf star will be born on the Red Giant dies
out. -
- The White Dwarf star at the center of the
expansion will be the diameter of the Earth.
It will be surrounded by an expanding giant cloud of gas and dust known
as Planetary Nebula. You can see many
beautiful pictures of Planetary Nebula in the space photography available on
the web.
-
- The
White Dwarf will cool and dim like a cosmic carbon ember throughout the
Universe’s lifetime. The dusty disk
remains surrounding the White Dwarf that no longer shines. The White Dwarf is composed of carbon and
oxygen with a thin atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. The dust rings are composed of silicate,
calcium, and aluminum like fine grains of beach sand.
-
- Stars
that are lower mass than the Sun will become Brown Dwarf stars. They are smaller mass about the diameter of
Jupiter, but, 10 times the size of the White Dwarf star. Higher mass stars are compressed to smaller
diameters.
-
- Space
telescopes have detected these dusty rings around White Dwarf stars. Over 50 have been discovered. And 40 White Dwarf stars have been found in
binary systems with a companion Brown Dwarf star.
-
- The
elements in these dusty rings were discovered with spectrographs mounted on the
telescopes. They separate the light
wavelength by wavelength, the longest wavelengths in the infrared 3400 to 4600
nanometers. The emission lines and
absorption lines in these spectrums allow the astronomers to determine the
elements that are in the dust debris.
-
- The
dust debris is the rocky remains of former planetary systems. Our planetary system will be one of these in
5 billion years from now. It is just a
matter of time. The Earth is
doomed. Dust to dust.
-
May 20, 2023 EARTH - is
doomed? 1415 4014
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--------------------- --- Saturday, May 20, 2023
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