Question: do you believe the human race will be wiped out one day

Sarah Martin answered on 11 Jun 2012:

Hi gazaslimakavanessabling12!
That’s a tough question! The universe has existed for over 13 billion years, Earth for over 4 billion years, and the human race as we know it for only about 200 thousand years. So it makes it very possible that there will be a time again when conditions in the universe make life for humans impossible. If humans stay on Earth, the next big crunch points will include:
– Within a million years, the hypergiant Eta Carinae, which is 7500 light years from the Sun, may go hypernova and explode, taking us with it
– In 1.4 million years Gliese 710 will be only 1.1 light years from Earth and might send a catastrophic comet shower our way.
– In about 3 billion years, our Milky Way galaxy is expected to collide with the Andromeda galaxy. Collisions of individual bodies is unlikely, but the consequences for orbits of stars are impossible to predict at the moment.
– In 5 billion years the Sun’s stellar will turn into a “red giant” star as it runs out of fuel inside. It will expand and maybe engulf Earth. But before this happens it will already have changed Earth’s climate so humans could not survive.

But this is all a very very long way in the future, and who knows where our descendants will be by then!