Astronomers Say Dying Sun Will Engulf Earth

iamlucky13 writes "A minor academic debate among astronomers is the final fate of the earth. As the sun ages and enters the red giant stage of its life, it will heat up, making the earth inhospitable. It will also expand, driven by helium fusion so that its outer layers reach past the earth's current orbit. Previously it had been believed that the sun would lose enough mass to allow earth to escape to a more distant orbit, lifeless but intact. However, new calculations, which take into account tidal forces and drag from mass shed by the sun, suggest that the earth will have sufficiently slowed in that time to be dragged down to its utter destruction in 7.6 billion years. "

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Tell me

[Dunbal]

If this is such an earth-shattering discovery, how come I read about it in Carl Sagan's COSMOS 20-odd years ago?

slow news day?

Gravity Assist

[EEPROMS]

This disaster can actually be compensated for to some degree by moving earths orbit further out from the sun using gravity assist. What you do is capture a large mass be it a comet or a large asteroid then put it in elongated orbit around earth. As the large mass now circling nears earth it pulls on the planet thus moving it ever so slightly. Few billions year later and earth has moved far enough out to avoid annihilation for a few extra billions years.

Wow talk about the slashdot community being slow..

[Allnighterking]

I'm 51 years old and I first saw this story in the Weekly Reader in 1st grade..... ( *grin* )

Forgot to say that was in the '70s

[joebob2000]

and the books were first published in the late 60's