Wandering stars, gamma-ray bursts, the proximity of a supernova are cosmic disasters that could destroy the Earth in the future.

What poses the greatest threat to human existence? If you ask yourself this, three possible answers will likely come to mind. Firstly, the threat nuclear war(due to the difficult political situation), secondly, global warming(scientists’ forecasts regarding Earth’s climate change are becoming gloomier and gloomier), and thirdly, the threat of a large-scale devastating pandemic (more and more often we are being informed of outbreaks of dangerous diseases caused by new viruses for which there are no vaccines or drugs).

Let's assume we can overcome these problems. But will we continue to be safe? Life on our little blue planet seems safe to us until we know about real threats hiding in cold space. We bring to your attention six scenarios of space disasters that could pose a serious danger to humanity.

1. High-energy solar flare

The sun is not such a harmless star. Yes, the luminary gives us a certain dose of energy, thanks to which life is supported on our planet, but as soon as the Sun increases this dose, all living things will die.

Our Sun is a hot gas ball of enormous size. The ball rotates around its axis, but not in the same way as the planets do. The speed of rotation of parts of the Sun is different. The equator moves faster and the poles move slower. The star's magnetic field twists in a special way along with the plasma and intensifies. Then this field begins to rise unevenly to the surface of the Sun. In places where there are ascents, solar activity increases and flares occur.

During flares, the level of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation from the Sun increases, and the star emits streams of high-energy charged particles. Persecuted solar wind These particles reach the Earth in just a few hours and cause geomagnetic storms that have a strong impact on the planet. Although the Earth is protected by the magnetosphere, flares can disable satellites (if they are located above 1000 km) and affect radio communications.

Some scientists argue that there is a high probability that the Sun will one day experience a powerful flare that will lead to global catastrophe. Others say this won't happen. According to them, the most powerful flares have energy equivalent to an explosion nuclear bomb(at 25 billion mt). Flares of such intensity can only disrupt radio communications and power supplies.

However, people have not yet learned to predict the occurrence of solar flares.

2. Asteroid

Over the past ten years, thanks to centers for observing near-Earth objects (there are only three of them: in the USA, Hawaii and Italy), astronomers have discovered asteroids that threaten our planet. Experts constantly monitor these cosmic bodies and can warn humanity about the impending danger 5 days in advance (previously they could do this only a few hours before the collision).

Scientists are already developing special systems that can protect us from collisions with small “space rocks.” But it is unlikely that these systems will protect us from very large objects that may not destroy planet Earth, but put an end to the existence of humanity, causing fires, huge tsunamis and other natural disasters.

For example, there is a possibility that (diameter 510 meters) flying towards the Earth at a speed of 101 km/h could collide with our planet in 2175.

3. Expansion of the Sun

Scientists predict that the Sun will die in 7.72 billion years. But “deadly” processes will begin to occur with the star much earlier (2-3 billion years).

The outer shell of the Sun will expand, the hydrogen fuel in its core will burn out, and the core itself will shrink and heat up to a temperature of about 200-300 million degrees. At this temperature, a thermonuclear reaction will occur to synthesize carbon and oxygen from helium. Temperature instabilities inside the star will lead to the following:

1 The Sun will lose mass, causing gravity to change and the planets to change their orbits;

2 then the star will sharply increase (166 times). It will turn into a red giant;

3 then the Sun will again decrease in size;

4 will “swell” again. The remains of helium, carbon, oxygen will “burn out”, and the Sun will die.

All that will remain of the Sun is a bare core, the size of the Earth. The core will be hot, but will gradually cool down and turn into a piece of cold stone.

During the time the star decreases and increases, a real apocalypse will have time to occur in the solar system. Mercury and Venus will be consumed by the giant's flames, the Earth will turn into a desert due to high temperatures, oceans, rivers and lakes will boil, mountains will split, and... the planet will burn to the ground.

4. Gamma-ray burst

A gamma-ray burst is a powerful burst of energy that can be caused by a binary star system or the merger of neutron stars and black holes. These bursts are so powerful that they could easily destroy the Earth's ozone layer, leaving our planet's surface vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. All living things will be destroyed, only underwater inhabitants living at a depth of more than 10 meters will be able to escape (UV radiation does not pass below a depth of 10 meters, it is absorbed by the water layer).

In April 1998, astronomers discovered the double star system WR 104. According to scientists, this system could be the source of such a gamma-ray burst. The Earth is located about 8,000 light years from WR 104, which means we are in the affected area. Will there ever be an explosion in WR 104? We can only guess.

5. Supernova proximity

A supernova explosion (the end of a star's life) in the Milky Way occurs 2-3 times every 100 years. When a star dies, an explosion occurs and enormous energy is released from the outer shell of the star into space. This energy, in the form of cosmic rays, can destroy the ozone layer and destroy all life on Earth.

The life of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is coming to an end. It is located in the constellation Orion, approximately 400-600 light years away. When Betelgeuse goes supernova, will the energy released from the explosion reach Earth? According to scientists (but they may be wrong), in order for cosmic rays from a supernova to reach a planet, the epicenter of the explosion must be 50 light years away.

6. Collision with a star

According to scientists, there is a possibility that in 240,000 years the Earth may collide with one of the stars in the system. hip85065. This object is located in the constellation Hercules at a distance of 16 light years from our planet.

In the future, the star from hip85065 could come within just 0.04 parsecs of the Sun (that's about 9,000 times the distance between the Sun and Earth).

Even if the stars are separated from each other, and the planets solar system will not be subject to gravitational disturbance, the Earth will still get it. The star from hip85065 will move through the Oort cloud - the “home” of many comets, asteroids and even planets. When passing through the cloud, the star will throw a huge number of objects into the solar system, some of which will collide with the Earth, which will lead to the inevitable death of all life.

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Anything can happen to the Earth. It could crash into another planet, be swallowed up by a black hole, or a stream of asteroids destroy all life. Nobody knows what exactly will cause the death of our planet.

But one thing is for sure - even if the Earth can avoid alien attacks, dodge huge space rocks and prevent a nuclear apocalypse, the day will come when our own Sun will ultimately destroy us.

Kevin Gill

And according to Gillian Scudder, an astrophysicist at the University of Sussex, that day may come sooner than we think.

Bleeding dry earth

The sun is shining thanks to thermonuclear reaction the transformation of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms in the nucleus. In reality, about 600 million tons of hydrogen per second are burned.

And as the Sun's core becomes saturated with this helium, it contracts, causing the fusion reaction to speed up—which means the Sun emits more energy. In fact, every billion years it becomes 10% brighter.

And although this 10% may seem like a small amount, such a difference can have catastrophic consequences for our planet.

“Predictions about what exactly will happen on Earth as the sun brightens over the next billion years are quite uncertain,” says Scudder. “But the general idea is this: increasing the amount of heat received from the Sun will increase the evaporation of water from the surface and the steam will end up in the atmosphere. The moisture will then act as a greenhouse gas, absorbing more and more incoming heat, accelerating evaporation.”

Ultimately, Scudder says, high-intensity sunlight will bombard our atmosphere and split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, gradually drying out the Earth.

Kevin Gill

And this is not the end. A 10% increase in the Sun's brightness every billion years means that in 3.5 billion years the Sun will shine nearly 40% brighter, causing Earth's oceans to boil and our planet to lose all moisture from its atmosphere.

The earth will become unbearably hot, dry and barren - like Venus.

Kevin Gill

Over time, the situation will only become grimmer.

Death rattle of the sun

All good things come to an end. And one day, in 4 or 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of hydrogen and helium will begin to burn instead.

After this, the Sun can be considered a red giant.

ESO/L. Calçada

Over time, the mass of the Sun will decrease, which is why its gravitational influence will weaken. Therefore, all the planets of the solar system will begin to gradually move away from the star.

According to Scudder, when the Sun becomes a full-blown red giant, its core will be very hot and dense, and its outer layer will expand much.

Its atmosphere will stretch to the current orbit of Mars, engulfing Mercury and Venus.

The Earth will have only two options: either escape from the expanding Sun or be absorbed by it. But even if our planet slips out of the reach of the Sun, intense temperatures will lead to a sad outcome.

“In any case, our planet will be quite close to the surface of the red giant, which is not good for life,” says Scudder.

Kevin Gill

From red giant to white dwarf

Once the Sun runs out of fuel, it will become unstable and begin to pulsate.

With each pulse, the Sun will lose layers of its outer atmosphere until all that remains is a cold, heavy core surrounded by a planetary nebula.

X-ray: /CXC/RIT/J.Kastner et al.; Optical: /STScI

With each passing day, this core, known as a white dwarf, will cool as if it had never illuminated what may be the most living planet in the universe.

But who knows. Maybe aliens will come to us before that.

There are many ways to destroy the Earth. It could collide with another planet, be swallowed by a black hole, or receive fatal blows from asteroids. There is really no way to determine which end scenario will lead to the demise of our planet.

But one thing is certain. Even if our planet can avoid alien invasion, nuclear apocalypse and dodge space rocks, the day will come when the Sun will destroy us. So what will happen to the Earth if the Sun actually dies in the blaze of its glory? And most importantly, it is worth understanding that this day may come much earlier than we all used to think.

The sun survives by burning hydrogen atoms at its core and turning them into helium. In fact, the Sun burns 600 million tons of hydrogen every second. As the solar core becomes saturated with helium, it continues to contract, causing nuclear fusion reactions to speed up. Thus, every billion years during which hydrogen combustion occurs, the Sun becomes brighter by 10%.

And while 10% may seem like a small number, even that much difference could be catastrophic for our planet.

Predicting exactly what will happen to the Earth as the Sun brightens over the next billions of years is difficult. But the general idea is that increasing the amount of heat we get from it will cause more water to evaporate from the surface of the planet. Thus, this water vapor will pass into the atmosphere. The water will become a kind of greenhouse gas that absorbs incoming heat, which will speed up evaporation.

At the same time, high-energy sunlight will bombard our atmosphere, causing water molecules to break apart and escape, just like hydrogen and oxygen. This will lead to what is called dry earth bleeding.

Where it leads

However, our problems will not end there. The increase in the Sun's brightness means that 3.5 billion years from now it will be almost 40% brighter. This will lead to the boiling of the oceans, the melting of the planet's ice caps and the disappearance of moisture from its atmosphere. As a result, the Earth, where life once originated, will become similar to Venus - just as dry and barren. But even after this, the situation will only get worse.

Death rattle of the sun

All good things come to an end sooner or later. One day, about 4 or 5 billion years from now, the Sun will run out of hydrogen that can burn and will start burning helium instead.

After hydrogen stops burning in the core, the Sun will begin to be seen as a red giant. It will be another billion years before the helium in the core expands and burns, as does the shell, where hydrogen is still capable of converting into helium.

As the Sun sheds its outer layers, its mass will begin to decrease, weakening the gravitational pull of all the planets. Therefore, all the planets that currently revolve around the Sun will move further and further away from it.

How will this affect the planets?

When the Sun finally becomes a full-blown red giant, its core will become a very hot and dense object, and its outer layer will expand significantly. It will capture the modern orbit of Mars, swallowing Mercury and Venus.

Although the Sun's atmosphere will reach the orbit of Mars, it will be able to “escape”, since at this time it will wander at the gates of the expanding solar atmosphere.

At the same time, for the Earth there are two possible options developments: it will be able to escape, like Mars, or be swallowed up, like Venus and Mercury. But even if our planet manages to slip beyond the reach of the Sun, high temperatures will turn it into a dead and crisp desert. Either way, Earth will end up very close to the red giant, which is bad news for anyone living on its surface.

Although more massive stars may have another shell of thermally anchored heavier elements when their helium supplies also disappear, the Sun is too weak to generate the pressure needed to initiate this merger. Therefore, when the helium in the Sun disappears, it will greatly aggravate the situation.

From red giant to white dwarf

Once all the fuel on the Sun runs out, it will become unstable and begin to pulsate. With each pulse, layers of its outer atmosphere will begin to disappear until only a hot, heavy core remains surrounded by a planetary nebula.

Such a nucleus is known as a “white dwarf”. It will cool more and more, approaching the end of its hopeless existence, until it turns into a cold black dwarf. This black dwarf will in no way resemble our Sun, which once made life possible on our planet, and it is quite possible that it is the only living thing in the fabric of our Universe.

But don't worry. There are many other scenarios that could destroy us long before that.

Astrophysicists from Denmark, Belgium, China and Italy have discovered a super flare on the Sun that could destroy most of the living organisms on Earth. Previously, the likelihood of such an event was assessed as negligible. New research shows that this is not the case. The astrophysicists' article was published in the journal Nature Communications and is briefly reported on the website of Aarhus University.

What are superflares

The most powerful flares observed on the Sun emit enormous energy into the surrounding space. In a few minutes, about one hundred billion megatons of TNT are released into outer space. This is about a fifth of the energy emitted by the Sun in one second, and all the energy that humanity would produce in a million years (assuming it was produced at current rates).

Superflares occur, as a rule, on larger stars of spectral classes F8 - G8, massive analogues of the Sun (belonging to the G2 class). These luminaries usually do not rotate quickly around their axis and may be part of a close binary system. The power of superflares exceeds solar flares by tens of thousands of times.

What scientists have found

Astrophysicists have proven that the Sun can also produce a superflare. In their study, the scientists examined the activity of 5,648 Sun-like stars, 48 ​​of which had superflares recorded. It turned out that stars with superflares are characterized by larger ejections of matter from the chromosphere than the Sun. At least four of the stars studied (KIC 8493735, KIC 9025370, KIC 8552540 and KIC 8396230) had a magnetic field almost identical to the solar one (or slightly less active).

The latter circumstance allowed astrophysicists to assume that flares on the Sun and superflares on other stars have a common nature. Scientists analyzed data obtained by the Kepler space telescope during the search for exoplanets using the transit method (based on changes in the apparent luminosity of a star as it passes through the disk of a celestial body). The observatory discovered many superflares on stars four years ago.

A detailed study of the stars was carried out using the world's largest spectral telescope, LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope), located in northeastern China near Beijing. The observatory's field of view coincided with the portion of the sky surveyed by Kepler. In total, astrophysicists studied the spectra of about one hundred thousand stars using LAMOST.

Solar flares are classified by their peak X-ray intensity (S-index). The minimum corresponds to peak A, equal to the radiation power less than ten to the minus seventh power of watts per square meter. The maximum is peak X, a thousand times larger than A. Scientists presented graphs of the S-index (using the example of calcium absorption lines) of the stars KIC 8493735, KIC 9025370, KIC 8552540 and KIC 8396230, equal to 0.15, 0.23, 0 at the time of the superflare .30 and .34 respectively.

Flashes have been recorded there that are thousands of times more intense than those on the Sun. These stars are similar to the Sun, and their magnetic fields are no stronger than the sun. This means that such superflares can occur on our star. Their consequences can be disastrous for life on the planet. After all, the strong flares on the Sun known to science have caused a lot of trouble.

Carrington Event

Anomalously high levels of carbon isotopes in wood rings indicate that a minor solar superflare may have occurred in 775 (and probably also in 993). Isotopes got into the wood material from the Earth’s atmosphere, where they appeared after the planet was bombarded by a stream of high-energy particles (protons) from the Sun. An alternative explanation suggests that these particles originated in other parts of the Milky Way.

The 775 event could have been 10 to 100 times more intense than the most powerful solar flare recorded so far, the Carrington event. In early September 1859, a geomagnetic storm caused the telegraph systems of Europe and North America to fail. The reason was called a powerful coronal mass ejection that reached the planet in 18 hours and was observed on September 1 by British astronomer Richard Carrington.

The geomagnetic storms of 2003 and 2005 were most likely caused by a solar storm similar to the one in 1859. In particular, on October 28, 2003, one of the high-voltage transformers in the Swedish city of Malmo failed, cutting off power to the entire locality. Other countries were also affected by the storm.

What's happened solar flares

A consistent theory describing the formation of solar flares does not yet exist. Flares occur, as a rule, in places where sunspots interact on the border of regions of northern and southern magnetic polarity. This leads to the rapid release of energy from the magnetic and electric fields, which is then used to heat the plasma (increasing the speed of its ions).

Spots are observed as areas of the Sun's surface with a temperature approximately two thousand degrees Celsius lower than the temperature of the surrounding photosphere (about 5.5 thousand degrees Celsius). In the darkest parts of the sunspot, the magnetic field lines are perpendicular to the surface of the Sun, while in its lighter part they are located closer to the tangent. The magnetic field strength of such objects exceeds its terrestrial value thousands of times, and the flares themselves are associated with a sharp change in the local geometry of the magnetic field.

Alternative Scenarios

There are three alternative scenarios that explain the occurrence of superflares on stars, in addition to the redistribution of magnetic field energy observed on the Sun. The “star-star” theory assumes the presence of a closely located companion star next to the luminary, the magnetospheres of which are temporarily connected by a flux magnetic tube. A superflare represents the rupture of this tube.

The second scenario, the “star-disk” scenario, is based on the hypothesis of the existence of a disk of gas and dust around the star. Rotating around the star, at some point it destroys the magnetic configuration, which initiates a superflare. The third scenario, star-planet, involves a massive exoplanet around a star. The interaction of celestial bodies can also create a magnetic tube and lead to its rupture (as in the first scenario) or a change in the polarity of the star due to the strengthening of the magnetic dynamo effect.

What to expect

Modern observational tools and theoretical models can predict a solar flare in about three days. Several countries have at their disposal a variety of satellites that monitor the activity of the star. One of the most powerful stations is the solar dynamics laboratory SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory), owned by NASA. Russia carried out satellite observations of solar activity using the Coronas-Photon apparatus.

Some studies indicate that the significance of solar flares is exaggerated, while others consider them to be the cause of mass animal extinctions. Thus, in one of the articles, in the event of a strong flare, changes in the magnetic field will not affect the entire planet, only some of its parts, and the simultaneous shutdown of all the Earth’s energy systems in the event of even a powerful geomagnetic storm is unlikely. On March 23, a class C flare was recorded on the Sun (not dangerous to humans and a million times weaker than a potentially dangerous superflare). Already on March 24, magnetic activity on the star was minimal. In any case, there is no need to expect predicted (and pleasant) surprises from the Sun.

Almost 10% of stars capable of producing superflares have a magnetic field whose strength is similar to or weaker than that of the Sun. From this, astrophysicists concluded that the Sun is capable of producing a superflare that will destroy life on Earth, Naked Science reports with reference to Phys.org. The most powerful solar flares release enormous amounts of energy into space. When this energy interacts with magnetic field Earth, the aurora occurs. However, this can also have serious consequences for the Earth: such an outbreak, for example, can lead to the failure of all electronic equipment and power outages.

Solar flare- explosive energy release process(light, thermal and kinetic) in the solar atmosphere.

A group of specialists from Denmark, Belgium, China and Italy conducted scientific work, its results were published in the journal Nature Communications.

As scientists explain, Earth is constantly being bombarded by Sun: when energetic particles of the plasma layer collide with the upper atmosphere, the atoms and molecules of gases included in its composition are excited. We see the result of this process as the aurora.

Among the most powerful in the entire history of observations - geomagnetic storm 1859 year, which was a consequence of record high solar activity. From August 28 to September 2, numerous spots and flares were observed on the Sun; the largest occurred on September 1. She caused a major coronal mass ejection, which rushed to the Earth and reached it in 18 hours(usually this distance is covered by the ejection in 3-4 days). A severe geomagnetic storm caused telegraph systems to fail in Europe and North America, and auroras were observed throughout the world, including the Caribbean.

Astrophysicists have studied the activity 5648 sun-like celestial bodies Superflares have been detected in 48 of this number, with 10% of the stars having a magnetic field almost identical to that of the sun. This allows us to assume that flares on the Sun and superflares on other stars are of the same nature.

Thus, it cannot be ruled out that Sun, like its celestial “brothers,” will one day release a record gigantic amount of energy capable of destroy all life on Earth.

In the 21st century, various states of the Earth are shaken by wars, crises, terrorism... There is a struggle for power, territory, resources. But the world has probably stopped realizing that Life in the Earth completely depends on Sun, the closest star to us.

From various sources on the Internet