What will the planets look like 3.5 billion years
from now?
The Sun is the solar system's central star and is responsible
for providing energy and light for the existence of planets and life on Earth.
But it will not shine forever; It is estimated that the sun will die within 5,000 million years,
but long before that the entire solar system will undergo significant changes.
What will the planets look like before the Sun dies in its last stage of life?
Can there still be living things on Earth? Ready? Let's get started! "
The Death of the Sun The Sun is the king star of the solar system,
the largest body, with the most significant mass and the largest source of energy. The Sun shines
thanks to the fact that every second it transforms 700 million tons of hydrogen into helium in a
process known as "Nuclear Fusion" this process transforms five million tons of matter into
energy, which results in the Sun becoming lighter and lighter, but in turn, also becoming brighter.
There will come a day when the Sun exhausts all the hydrogen in the central region,
transforming it into helium. The pressure exerted by the force of gravity will be unable
to sustain the upper layers, and the central region will tend to contract gravitationally,
progressively heating the adjacent layers. The excess energy produced will cause the outer
layers of the Sun to tend to expand and cool, and the Sun will become a giant red star. The diameter
can reach and exceed that of the Earth's orbit, with which any form of life will be extinct.
When the temperature of the central region of the Sun reaches approximately 100 million kelvins,
the fusion of helium into carbon will begin to occur while hydrogen continues to fuse into helium
around the core; this will gradually change the color of the Sun from white-orange to reddish.
This will cause the star to contract and decrease its brightness while increasing its temperature,
turning the Sun into a star of the opaque horizontal branch,
but with very high temperatures. When the helium of the core is exhausted,
a new expansion of the Sun will begin; this will cause the star to expel much of
its mass in vast bursts of solar wind that sweep the atmosphere of all the planets;
this will form a planetary nebula, leaving only the solar core that will become a white dwarf.
All the planets will likely be swept away when the Sun dies, but this will happen about 5,000
million years from now. Maximum brightness
It is estimated that the Sun will reach its maximum brightness and temperature when it
is 8,000 million years old, within 3,500 million years. Once it reaches this point,
its diameter will increase, but its temperature and brightness will begin to decrease.
That's why we selected the date 3.5 billion years ago, long before the sun became a
red giant and died as a planetary nebula. This date was discovered thanks to the GAIA
mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). Initially, the GAIA mission was classified
as a star finder that would aim to create the complete three-dimensional star map of our galaxy
ever made. This implies knowing the position and velocity of more than 1 billion stars,
about 1% of all those that populate the Milky Way. The GAIA mission helped us determine how the Sun
will behave in the distant future and, therefore, how this will affect the solar system's planets.
1. Mercury Mercury will be one
of the most affected planets when the sun reaches its stage of brightness and maximum temperature.
It is estimated that the sun increases its brightness by 10% every 1000 million years;
this means that within 3,500 million years, it will be 35% brighter than it is now. Likewise,
its temperature will also increase by 35% more, warming the surface of Mercury,
This will cause a drastic change in the planet's color, which will go from dark gray to brown,
and the planet's surface temperature will also be much higher than it already is.
Mercury will not be absorbed by the sun before it becomes a red giant, but the
light and temperature will be so intense that not even robots can resist being there for long.
Mercury will go from being a planet with drastic changes in temperature between day and night,
where the day is scorching and the night very cold, to being an eternally hot planet with a
brown surface covered with ash deposited by the burning of materials from the sun.
Today, some craters at Mercury's poles may contain ice of water. But,
when the sun reaches its maximum brightness, these ice craters will
evaporate completely because the entire planet's surface will be hotter regardless
of whether or not it is under the sun's rays. An impressive effect that will be noticed on
Mercury is that it will have an elongated and visible tail as if it were a comet.
From time to time, when weather conditions and the position of Mercury concerning the sun allow it,
it is possible to see the tail of Mercury that is produced when sodium molecules on the surface
of the planet shoot out into space by the push of sunlight and the impacts of micrometeorites.
Currently, this tail is only visible from time to time. But, in 3,500 million years,
this sodium tail will always be present on Mercury, giving it the appearance of a
giant comet, and it can be seen from Earth if there are still humans at that time.
2. Venus When the sun reaches its
maximum brightness and temperature, Venus will undergo significant changes in its atmosphere.
Due to the rise in temperature and solar flares, the clouds of Venus will be plucked little
by little until leaving the planet without the dense atmosphere that characterizes it.
In 3.5 billion years, Venus will still be a hell for life, but it will no longer have that heavy
atmosphere. Something interesting is that Venus rotates thanks to its dense atmosphere, but when
it loses its cloud cover, it will stop rotating and be gravitationally anchored to the Sun.
This means that one of its faces will be looking at the sun permanently;
that is to say, on one side, it will always be a day, and on the other, eternally at night.
3. Earth The planet
most affected by the increase in the brightness and temperature of the sun will be Earth. The
increased heat will evaporate all the water on the planet, from ocean water to the polar ice caps.
For thousands of years, all the water on the planet will slowly evaporate until not a single
drop remains. Temperatures will rise to 100 ° C, killing all living beings that inhabit our planet.
It is possible that the planet still retains oxygen, but without water and with higher
temperatures, it is most likely that there will be no living being left in our beloved home.
What will happen to humans? If we manage to develop and survive until then,
it is most likely that the human race will have already developed the technology to leave Earth
when the sun begins to increase its brightness and temperature. We will have moved to another
planet or even another solar system while we let the cradle that saw us born continue to
revolve freely around the Sun as a dry and hot world. Without water and without us.
4. Mars
The fourth closest planet to the sun will not be spared the increase in
temperature and brightness because Mars already suffers from the rawness of solar radiation.
After all, it does not have a magnetic field; within 3,500 million years, Mars will lose its
small atmosphere completely, which will be evaporated by the embracing heat of the sun.
In addition, something similar to Mercury will happen; due to its surface composition, it may go
from having a reddish color to a brown tone caused by the fall of ash from burning fuel from the sun.
5. Jupiter The planet bigger of all may be the refuge
of humanity, or more specifically; its moons will be. When the sun reaches its maximum brightness
and temperature, Jupiter's clouds will change color and acquire more brown and red colors.
The increase in temperature will cause many more hurricanes than it already has.
If humanity succeeds in perfecting space travel technology, Jupiter's moons are likely to be the
new homes of the human race. This is because, with the increase in temperature on the four
rocky planets, the new habitable zone of the solar system will move to the orbits of the gas giants.
The new habitable zone will house Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. But many experts think that Jupiter
can also have pleasant temperatures; thanks to this, the 4 Galilean moons,
Ganymede, Europa, Io, and Callisto, can be terraformed to be the future home of humanity.
Although they are currently rocks covered with vast and thick layers of ice, when the sun
increases its temperature, all that ice can melt and become water, so they will be suitable places
to build human settlements. 6. Saturn
Saturn will suffer a fate very similar to Jupiter due to the increase in temperatures and the
deposit of materials from the sun; its clouds will change color to more reddish tones, in addition to
its moons being within the new habitable zone. It's possible that Titan and Enceladus,
Saturn's two largest moons, will become worlds much like Earth, with oceans and human
settlements where we can live permanently. Something striking is that by this time,
Saturn will no longer have rings, but this will not be caused by the sun's
brightness increase but by the simple fact that Saturn's gravity will absorb the rings.
Today it is known that Saturn's rings are disappearing, and within 3,500 million years,
they will have been entirely absorbed by the gaseous planet; this will turn Saturn
into a brown and reddish gaseous planet, without rings, very different from how we know it today.
7. Uranus
The seventh closest planet to the Sun will not undergo as many changes; beyond that,
its moons will be within the new habitable zone. The two largest moons of Uranus,
Titania, and Oberon, will be worlds with pleasant temperatures for human settlements.
Being within the habitable zone will be enough to carry all the necessary resources
to build entire cities on the moons of Uranus. By receiving a more significant amount of sunlight,
it would be easier to convert ice into water and thus have enough resources for the future human
race to be distributed in different settlements on the moons of all the solar system's gas giants.
8. Neptune It will be the least affected
planet of all, it is possible that the increase in brightness of the Sun will not be enough to place
it within the new habitable zone, but it will cease to be a planet as cold as it currently is.
This increase in temperature could lead to more storms inside, but the most critical
aspect is that its giant moon, Triton, will be a great candidate to host humans.
Triton is a moon known to have large reserves of water in the form of ice;
if, within 3,500 million years, the temperature of the Sun increases, it would be possible to
establish bases on newt to begin terraforming it and turn it into another home of humanity.
As you can see, even though the Sun will die sooner or later and with it,
life on Earth will disappear, this will also open up new possibilities for the human race.
The worlds that today are uninhabitable because they are too cold, like the moons of Jupiter and
Saturn; in the future will be within the habitable zone and maybe the new homes of humanity,
where we will build new cities in bodies with more significant reserves of water than the Earth had.
Thus, in the future, the cradle that saw the birth of the human race will cease to be habitable, and
we will have to abandon it, but in exchange, other new worlds will have the necessary conditions
to house living beings. The moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and perhaps even Neptune will
be the new settlements of humanity, so we will no longer have a single new home, still many more.