Before mankind embarked on the road of science and technology, mankind’s observation of the starry sky mainly relied on his eyes. In our eyes, the stars in the sky are still and exist forever. But as mankind entered the age of technology and invented the astronomical telescope, we have gained more knowledge of stars.
When human beings walked out of the earth, our understanding of the universe has been improved. We not only saw the appearance of the earth, but also learned about the existence of the solar system and the existence of the outer starry sky. At this time, we understand that a star is not stationary, it is also moving around a larger center of mass, and stars are also life-span limited, depending on their mass, the lifespan of stars varies from thousands to thousands. It ranges from ten thousand years to tens of billions of years. And our sun is a yellow dwarf, and its life span is about 10 billion years. How could it have gone through 5 billion springs and autumns, and another 5 billion years will usher in the final outcome.
Although the ultimate destiny of the sun is to die, we cannot travel 5 billion years later and cannot see with our own eyes the future of the sun, the future of the solar system. Time cannot go backwards and cannot move fast in advance, so can we not understand the future of the solar system? of course not.
Although we cannot see the final outcome of the solar system with our own eyes, there are countless star systems in the universe, and there are at least 100 billion star systems in the Milky Way alone. Different star systems have different star life spans. We can observe and find a star system that is very similar to the solar system. If this star system has reached the end, then the final evolution scenario will occur.
By observing the evolution of this star system, we can know the future of the solar system in advance. Scientists have discovered a star system code-named “J0914 + 1914” through a lot of observations. This star system is very similar to the solar system. The stars are yellow dwarfs just like the sun, and their masses are very close. Therefore, what happens there is very useful for humans to understand the future of the solar system.
“J0914 + 1914” is about 2,000 light years away from the Earth. This is a star system that has reached the end of the day. The star in the center has completed its evolution and turned into a white dwarf star. Scientists observed that this white dwarf star is absorbing a large amount of elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. These elements are ubiquitous on gas giant planets. There are four gaseous planets in the solar system, so these elements also exist in abundance.
Why do stars have evolved into white dwarfs and continue to absorb a large amount of elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur? This is an important reference for scientists to understand the future of the solar system. Through the evolution of this galaxy, we can see that after the star evolved into a white dwarf, it did not calm down and stabilize, but continued to affect the star system.
The reason why the white dwarf “J0914 + 1914” absorbs a large amount of elements such as oxygen, oxygen, sulfur, etc., based on the research of scientists, puts forward a guess: that is, there is a gas giant planet in an orbit 10 million kilometers away from the white dwarf. These hydrogen, Elements such as oxygen and sulfur come from this giant planet.
Scientists have also found through calculations that this giant planet has about 3,000 tons of material per second, which will be swallowed by white dwarfs less than half of its volume, and will be “baptized” by stellar winds above 28,000 degrees Celsius at all times.
The overall galaxy structure of “J0914 + 1914” is very similar to that of the solar system, and there is a high probability that our sun will evolve into a white dwarf in 5 billion years. So will the same scene be staged in the future of the solar system? If it were staged, what would be the fate of the earth? In this regard, scientists put forward two possible guesses.
1. The earth is directly swallowed by the sun. The evolution of the sun to a white dwarf requires several processes. Before the white dwarf, there is a red giant stage. Five billion years later, the hydrogen element of the sun has been consumed, and the hydrogen nuclear fusion reaction in the center ceases. At this time, the first evolution of the sun began, that is, the center continued to collapse and the outer shell continued to expand outward.
The expansion of the sun will make it become bigger and bigger. This is the red giant stage. The evolution of the sun to a red giant will continue to swallow the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. While the orbit is swallowed, the earth will also be shattered by the sun and disappear into the stars in the universe.
2. The earth is thrown directly to the outermost part of the solar system by the sun’s gravity, thus avoiding the fate of being shattered and disappearing. Although this possibility is very small, it is not entirely impossible. It is important to know that the process of the sun’s transformation to a red giant is a violent activity, and this violent activity will produce extremely unstable gravitational disturbances in the surrounding orbit.
The strong and disordered gravitational disturbance may make the motion of the earth very unstable, and the possibility of being thrown away by the sun’s gravity cannot be ruled out. Of course, it is more likely to be swallowed and destroyed by the sun.
When the red giant swells to its maximum, the internal collapse is completed and it becomes a dense white dwarf. And the shell will collapse into dust. Since then, the evolution of the sun to a white dwarf has been completed. At this time, there are only four gaseous planets left in the solar system. The white dwarf orbit will be very close to Jupiter, and it may also absorb a large amount of Jupiter, hydrogen and oxygen on Saturn under the action of gravity. , Flow and other gaseous dust substances.
Of course, this is 5 billion years from now. For the survival of mankind, we simply cannot wait for the earth to reach that day. Because as the sun’s hydrogen element continues to decrease, its early expansion will be earlier and the temperature will continue to rise, reaching a temperature comparable to the surface of Venus. At that time, the liquid water on the surface will continue to evaporate, a large amount of vegetation will burn, and the earth will become a fireball.
If human beings want to continue to survive, they will have to leave the earth ahead of time to live in a new homeland. Some people may say that humans could migrate to Mars at that time, but in fact Mars cannot become a more ideal new home for mankind. It is important to know that in the later stages of the evolution of the sun to a red giant, Mars will also be swallowed. Once it evolves into a white dwarf, the solar system will exist in name only.
Therefore, after the solar life comes to an end, human beings can only go outside the solar system if they want to find an ideal new home. To migrate to the outer galaxy, humans must first become an interstellar civilization with the ability to navigate between stars, otherwise we can only shrink in the solar system. It is not an easy task to become an interstellar civilization. Although under normal circumstances, the evolution of the sun to a red giant is still billions of years, it is still unknown whether human beings can become an interstellar civilization in such a long period of time. .
