Utopia Talk / Politics / Eternal life IS possible!

Jebbebiah Wilkins rank

Tue Jun 30 17:58:39 We may NEVER die! Though we will have to live in underground bunkers ... https://fy...th-new-study-suggests-it-might Will Earth survive the Sun's death? New study suggests it might. When the Sun reaches the end of its life in about five billion years, it will expand into a giant star hundreds of times larger than it is today. For decades, astronomers have debated what this means for Earth. Will our planet be swallowed by the expanding Sun, or will it escape to a wider orbit? A new study by researchers at KU Leuven and CEA Paris-Saclay shows that the answer is more uncertain than previously thought. Using the latest models of stellar evolution and tidal interactions, the team finds that Earth is likely to survive both of the Sun's giant phases, but only if the Sun loses mass quickly enough during its final stages of evolution. As the Sun evolves into a red giant, two competing processes determine Earth's fate. On the one hand, the Sun will expand enormously, increasing the gravitational tidal forces that tend to pull Earth inward. On the other hand, the Sun will lose a large fraction of its mass through a stellar wind. As the Sun becomes lighter, Earth's orbit gradually moves outward. "The fate of Earth depends on a delicate balance between these two effects," says lead author Mats Esseldeurs, researcher at the Institute of Astronomy of KU Leuven. "If tidal interactions dominate, Earth is engulfed. If mass loss dominates, Earth escapes to a wider orbit." Previous studies often concluded that Earth would eventually be consumed by the Sun. However, many of these studies relied on simplified descriptions of tidal interactions inside giant stars. The new research uses state-of-the-art calculations of tidal dissipation based on the internal structure and dynamics of evolved stars. These models were developed by the research team in earlier work and are based on first-principles calculations rather than simplified approximations. Using these updated prescriptions, the researchers found that tidal interactions are weaker than previously assumed. As a result, Earth remains farther from the Sun during the giant phases, significantly increasing its chances of survival. In the simulations, Mercury and Venus are inevitably engulfed by the expanding Sun. Earth, however, survives both the giant phases, ending up in a wider orbit around the white dwarf remnant that the Sun will eventually become. Despite this encouraging result, the story is not yet settled. The researchers found that the final outcome depends on how rapidly the Sun loses mass during its last giant phase. Unfortunately, these mass-loss rates remain a poorly understood aspect of stellar evolution. To investigate this uncertainty, the team turned to L2 Puppis, a nearby evolved star often regarded as a glimpse of the Sun's future. Using this observational estimate, Earth will move outward just enough to survive. "The largest uncertainty no longer comes from the tidal calculations, but from how much mass the future Sun will lose," says Mats Esseldeurs. "Observations of Sun-like giant stars currently point towards Earth's survival, but we need better observations before we can be certain." The study highlights how observations of evolved stars can provide clues about the distant future of our own Solar System. Upcoming facilities and missions will discover many more planets around giant stars, allowing astronomers to test models of planetary survival on a population scale. Although life on Earth will become impossible long before the Sun reaches its giant phases, the planet itself may endure. Whether Earth ultimately survives or not, the answer lies in understanding the complex physics of ageing stars, a problem astronomers are only now beginning to unravel.

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