In the center of our
Solar System,
there is a ticking bomb.
And when it explodes,
it will end all life on Earth.
That time bomb is our Sun.
And like all the stars
in the Universe,
it has an expiration date.
Some five billion years
from now,
it will swell into a red giant,
obliterating everything
in its vicinity.
Including you.
If you think that's bad,
you ain't seen nothing yet.
Small asteroids are hitting Earth
all the time.
But once every few million years,
it's a massive,
life-exterminating asteroid
that smashes into our planet.
Yeah, that’s happened before,
when dinosaurs
got wiped out of existence.
Only now it would be you and
all of humanity becoming extinct.
The Earth's core is a scorching
ball of fire as hot as the Sun.
And it's slowly but
surely losing its blazing heat.
When the core cools down,
it'll stop generating
Earth's magnetic field.
Without a magnetosphere,
there would be nothing
to protect us
from hostile space radiation.
And there would be nothing
to hold our atmosphere
in place, either.
Once our planet lost
most of its breathable air,
it would start looking
a lot like Mars.
If the Moon broke off its orbit
and suddenly went spiraling down
to Earth,
it would cause
devastating earthquakes
all over our planet.
Our Moon's
gravity would make Earth stretch
and heat up on the inside.
And this would trigger
massive volcanic eruptions.
Add to that monstrous waves
that would wipe out
entire coastlines.
All these disasters would last
until the Moon
reached the Roche limit.
Then it would break into
millions of small pieces,
creating a magnificent ring
around a lifeless rock
we call Earth.
The next doomsday
event will start
with a massive explosion
on the Sun's surface.
A solar flare so powerful
that it will zap
the Earth's atmosphere.
This would hit satellites
and damage our electronics.
Some 12 hours later,
a cloud of scorching
plasma would cause a serious
geomagnetic storm down on Earth.
A global power outage
will plunge human
civilization into darkness.
Who knows how long we’ll last
when all our power
grids are destroyed.
Earth is slowly
losing its atmosphere to space.
And when there's no breathable
air left on our planet,
humanity won't stand a chance.
Without the atmosphere,
the sky will turn black.
Oceans will start to boil away.
Everything will be about to die
as all Earth’s oxygen
vents out into space.
Life doesn’t do so well in a vacuum.
Jupiter is made
of the same elements as the Sun.
And if the gas planet
could initiate
a fusion reaction in its core,
we'd all be doomed.
Jupiter-turned-star
would make the Solar System
go wild.
Asteroids would smash
into planets.
Planets
would smash into each other.
This new star
could pull Earth toward it
and toast it like a marshmallow.
Or it could spit us
out of the Solar System
and send us
drifting into the cold
darkness of space.
Magnetars are the most powerful
spinning magnets in the Universe.
They're similar to neutron
stars, only a lot denser.
One tablespoon of magnetar
weighs in at one billion tons.
If a magnetar entered
our Solar System, it would wreak
havoc with its immense gravity.
But that isn't the worst.
Magnetars experience starquakes.
That's when stars crack
and let out
tons of radiation into space.
This much radiation would rip
the Earth’s ozone layer into shreds
and obliterate
the planet's surface.
Along with all life on it,
of course.
Aliens visiting Earth
could be a dream come true.
But it can quickly turn
into your worst nightmare.
If they just showed up
on our doorstep,
and we decided to throw our nukes
at them,
you know,
as a defensive measure,
this would get ugly quick.
Alien intruders would likely have
way more advanced weapons
to use against us.
And even if they did turn out to
be friendly,
alien species could easily
wipe us out
by spreading pathogens
that we'd have no natural immunity to.
Okay, there are two things
you need to know
about black holes.
1. They're massive.
And 2. You don't want
Earth to end up in one.
Because that would suck.
If a black hole was going
to swallow Earth, its monstrous
gravity would stretch our planet.
Earth’s closest side
would get the most pull,
and the opposite
side would be pulled less.
This is what
spaghettification looks like.
And then we would get squished
into the black hole's
singularity, becoming one
with our devourer.
There is no explosion
in the Universe more violent
than a gamma-ray burst.
Just one direct hit to Earth
would instantly incinerate
the planet.
Our ozone layer would go poof,
and you'd be bathed in
a lethal dose of radiation.
This would be a horrifying
mass extinction event
and that's why
it made it to the top of our list
of the most devastating events
that will end the world.