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Will humanity still exist? Will the Pyramids of Giza still exist? Will Earth or the Solar System exist?
The humbling, absolute truth is that human history makes up the tiniest of fraction of the universe’s history — and when you consider that the universe itself, at 14 billion years old, is still in its infancy, well… we don’t really have words to describe the utter flash-in-the-pan unimportance of humanity. The universe is 14 billion years old, the Earth is four billion years old, and Homo sapiens, humans, have existed for around 200,000 years. There are a few conflicting theories on what will happen to the universe in the long term, but the most likely theory — continued expansion until heat death occurs — is calculated to happen in 1010120 years. This is a vast, vast number that you or I can’t even begin to comprehend; it’s 1, followed by 10120 zeroes.
Long before the ultimate fate of the universe, though, all forms of life will cease to exist. In “just” 1040 years (10 followed by 40 zeroes), the universe will enter the Black Hole Era, with almost all the matter in the universe forming black holes. After 10100 years these black holes will evaporate and we will enter the Dark Era, where the universe will contain almost no matter at all. It is theorized that a handful of subatomic particles will bounce around for a few more gazillion years (until 1010120), lose what energy they have left, and the universe will eventually decay into its final energy state — death.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves! The timeline of the near far future is much more interesting, because our progeny might actually live to see it. For example, in 8,000 years, thanks to the Earth’s slowly shifting axial precession, Deneb will replace Polaris as the North Star. In 10,000 years, the Gregorian calendar will be 10 days out of sync with the sun’s position in the sky (and thus the seasons) — this is delightfully ironic, as the Gregorian calendar was originally implemented to fix a 10-day slippage caused by the Julian calendar. In 13,000 years, our axial precession will mean that Vega (a very bright star indeed!) becomes the North Star.
Looking
a bit further out, in 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will retain the title of
“farthest man-made object from Earth” and pass within 1.6 light years of
AC+79 3888 (a star) — unless, of course, humanity develops a faster
propulsion system before then. Moving at a velocity of 61,400 kilometers
per hour (38,200mph), it takes Voyager 1 about 14,000 years to travel a
single light year. Voyager 1 is perhaps most famous for taking the
photo on the right, the Pale Blue Dot, at Carl Sagan’s behest. Here, Earth can be seen from six billion miles away as Voyager 1 leaves the Solar System.After 50,000 years, assuming we can curb anthropogenic (human-based) global warming, the current interglacial is scheduled to end, throwing the Earth back into an ice age. Around this time, assuming nothing else changes, Niagara Falls should have eroded the remaining 20 miles to Lake Erie, and will cease to exist. (Presumably Lake Erie will freeze during the ice age, anyway.)
In 100,000 years, due to the continued (and very rapid movement) of stars in the sky, constellations will no longer be recognizable. Sometime after that, but before 1 million years have passed, Betelgeuse will go supernova. As one of the largest known stars, and at a distance of just 640 light years away from us, the supernova is expected to be visible during the day (that is, if any humans are around to see it).
In 1.4 million years, Gliese 710 is expected to pass by our Solar System, getting as close as 1.1 light years. Even at this distance, it won’t be a particularly bright star — but if we’re still stuck here on Earth (God help us), and assuming Gliese 710 has its own set of planets, this will be one of our best chances to populate another solar system.
Let’s take a quick breather. To put this all into perspective, remember that almost everything we’ve achieved here on Earth has taken place in the last 10,000 years, since the advent of modern civilization — and due to the acceleration of technology, a vast number of our achievements have occurred in just the last 200 years or so. In 1.4 million years, by the time Gliese 710 does a fly-by, human civilization will be indescribably advanced. 1.4 million years is more than long enough for a new species to emerge, too, so who knows, maybe Homo sapiens will have been ousted by Homo technicus, or something along those lines.
Continuing on, in 50 million years, the Californian coastline will begin to be subducted into the Aleutian Trench. In other tectonic news, after 50 million years, Africa will have collided with Eurasia, squashing the Mediterranean out of existence and creating a new mountain range, much like the Himalayas. After 250 million years, it’s possible that the continents will have (re-fused) back into a single supercontinent.
Between 250 million and 800 million years from now, Earth will slowly become uninhabitable, due to the Sun’s increasing luminosity (the old girl hasn’t reached her peak yet!) As temperatures rise, weathering increases, and the amount of carbon dioxide drops to a point where plants can no longer photosynthesize. 1 billion years from now, the Sun’s luminosity will have increased by 10%, resulting in an average Earth surface temperature of 47 degrees Celsius (117F). At this point, the oceans will evaporate into space, and shortly after, almost all remaining lifeforms will die.
From this point on, I guess it doesn’t really matter what happens to Earth, but just in case you’re wondering: In about 7.9 billion years, the Sun will reach its maximum radius — 256 times larger than it is today. At this point, it will absorb Mercury and Venus, and probably the Earth too. This is the end of the line for Earth. Shortly thereafter, the Sun will shrink down into a white dwarf, and then 6 billion years later it will (theoretically) become a black