Is there any chance the human race will find,and evacuate to another inhabitable planet,before the sun dies?

Question

What happens to the human race when the sun dies, if we are to survive how long do we need to find another planet like earth, and can we reach it with enough people to populate it.

Answer 1

Its possible if the people of the earth would combine their resources and brain power to do so instead of spending it on building weapons to annihilate each other.

Answer 2

The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence evolution, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. Each second, more than 4 million tonnes of matter are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation. The Sun will spend a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main sequence star.

The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova. Instead, in 4-5 billion years, it will enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin when the core temperature reaches around 100 MK, and will produce carbon and oxygen. While it is likely that the expansion of the outer layers of the Sun will reach the current position of Earth's orbit, recent research suggests that mass lost from the Sun earlier in its red giant phase will cause the Earth's orbit to move further out, preventing it from being engulfed. However, Earth's water will be boiled away and most of its atmosphere will escape into space.

So, to answer your question: our deadline is four to five billion years. You probably wouldn't even recognise a human from 4.5 billion a.d.

But there is a good chance that by that time we have some way to flit about the galaxy. Humans are inventive. _if_ we survive the intermediate time of course. We are also self-destructive.

Answer 3

As above, the sun going nova is billions of years away. The chances of some other catastrophe wiping us out before then are much higher. Even time is an enemy here. A billion years is a very serious stretch for evolution. Forget about even that long, in a million years the human race may evolve out of all recognition.

Answer 4

I found that if the sun doesn't die, it will take 5 billion years to turn into a WHITE DWARF, a kind of star which is very big, this will be big enough for the sun to consume the earth. But in 3 billion years time the black hole the Milkey Way is spinning on will gravitationally attract to the BH that Andromeda, the next one along, is spinning round will collide. Being sensible, with this metaphorical clock at 5 to midnight, do you think that the human race will last that long?

Answer 5

Death of the sun is the least of our worries, it's about 3 billion years away.

Minimum population for sufficiently diverse gene pool is about 500, but there's everything else that goes with that -- like a suitable eco-sphere to support us. Anyway I think we could figure that out in 1,000 years at most so I don't think that's an issue. The have been plenty of SF stories written to cover all those sorts of eventualities.

Let's see, of more concern would be events like: big meteor impact, global warming (not necessarily man-made, climate changes anyway), volcanic events (like Yellowstone Park exploding -- would be very bad), over-population, famine, disease, radiation pollution from atomic testing (mostly stopped now, thankfully, but never underestimate human stupidity), war ...

Yes, I think those are probably more immediate concerns.

Answer 6

You would not necessarily have to find another planet like earth, although obviously this would be desirable as long as we can produce air and have a base to support our feet. We would also need the necessary materials to build and support life. There is no reason as long as our science and our minds keep expanding why we cannot live on any reasonable planet similar say to the moon, we know the moon has water and it is possible other planets do also even though they do not have an atmosphere..

Answer 7

Any habitable planet will be a few million light years away so any space ship will have to be a flying city where the people who reach the planet will be the distant descendants of those who left Earth (unless we learn to break the laws of physics)

We're far more likely to be hit by a meteorite before then!

Answer 8

The human race has only been on the Earth for a short period of time relative to our Universes history.

We have plenty of time before our Sun expires; the only limitation to this exciting possibility is the human race itself.

Answer 9

well if the human race is still around in 5 billion years or so the only way we could have survived is by populating other planets.

Answer 10

Will the sun will be there for another 5 billion years...at least by that time human beings would be evolved into something different. Homo sapien remains will remain in fossils like the dinos......so not sure what technology will develop 5 billion years on.