Earth�s Horrifying Fate!

Even if we could prevent the sun from destroying the Earth when it�s at the end of its life cycle by moving the Earth out of its orbit, the earth and everything in our galaxy is doomed. Humanity would need to leave the Milky Way Galaxy to escape the inevitable. We are on a cosmic conveyer belt that leads to the center of a Super Massive Black Hole. I don�t know how long it would take but maybe we could use the Earth as a space ship by taking it out of orbit and sending it out of this galaxy.

Milky Way's Centre Measured



Summary - (Apr 2, 2004) Radio astronomers have successfully measured an object that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The centre of our galaxy lies 26,000 light-years from Earth, but it's normally obscured by gas and dust, so visible light telescopes can't see it. By focusing on the object, called Sagittarius A, with high radio wavelengths, the astronomers were determine that its size is as about the same as the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. The supermassive black hole at the centre is likely the size of the orbit of Mercury, but it contains 4 million solar masses.

The Article

Ahh well! Its been a good life! Or has it?

When will this black hole get serious?

Originally posted by ShadowSephiroth
When will this black hole get serious?

Probably not for Billions of years. But it's inevitable.

We'll be long gone and the next generation of intelligent beings will be here by the time that happens.

The sun isnt supposed to die for another estimated 4.5 billion years. For now, Im just gonna enjoy life.

The thing is it may take a billion years to get the Earth out of this Galaxy so we should start thinking about this now. As the black hole consumes the stars around it I would assume it would become larger and produce more gravity, thereby speeding up its rate of consumption. So the conveyer belt would speed up with time until it had consumed everything in our Galaxy.

considering we've orbited the galaxy about 20 times since the the sun's formation... i wouldn't worry... the sun will be LONG dead by the time. and as for moving the earth out of the sun... how? and what would we use for energy? i mean something to keep the earth heated and not so we all die... and where would we go? one of the magellenic clouds? and what would we do when that star wanted to die? move the earth again?

i think for the survival of mankind it would be better to leave the earth behind and go out in a mass exodus of starships.

[Edited on 4/2/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

By then I supose intergalactic travel might be possible so we could just find ourselves a nice young galaxy that should last us several billions of years. Of course that's if we don't destroy the Earth ourselves first.

Originally posted by JustAnIllusion
The sun isnt supposed to die for another estimated 4.5 billion years. For now, Im just gonna enjoy life.

sounds good to me

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
considering we've orbited the galaxy about 20 times since the the sun's formation... i wouldn't worry... the sun will be LONG dead by the time. and as for moving the earth out of the sun... how? and what would we use for energy? i mean something to keep the earth heated and not so we all die... and where would we go? one of the magellenic clouds? and what would we do when that star wanted to die? move the earth again?

i think for the survival of mankind it would be better to leave the earth behind and go out in a mass exodus of starships.

As for moving the earth out of the sun... how?

I saw a program in the discovery channel where they used huge asteroids to pull the Earth out of it�s orbit.

What would we use for energy? i mean something to keep the earth heated and not so we all die...

We would run into the same issues in a space craft. We would need to heat it, use hydroponics to grow food, recycle water etc. If we used the Earth as our space ship at least we would be able to use all of its resources. We have enormous amounts of water that would freeze soil to grow food, minerals to build with and nourish the soil. We would use the same technology to heat our living areas on earth as you would use on a traditional space craft. Except that we would have an almost limitless power supply by use of traditional heating methods.

and where would we go?

I guess the same place the space craft would go.

Originally posted by Ranger
By then I supose intergalactic travel might be possible so we could just find ourselves a nice young galaxy that should last us several billions of years. Of course that's if we don't destroy the Earth ourselves first.

the young galaxies are all on the fringes of the known universe for starters... and this is happening in more than just our galaxy.

and i forgot before... the andromeda galaxy will collide with the milky way before this black hole does anything to affect earth. another thing is that most galaxies have supermassive black holes in them.

We will take the place of mars and venus will take our place as earth just as pluto once was like earth.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
and i forgot before... the andromeda galaxy will collide with the milky way before this black hole does anything to affect earth. another thing is that most galaxies have supermassive black holes in them.

That�s the point, impending doom is unavoidable by whatever means. We will need to leave not just this planets orbit but the entire galaxy. The only question is how.

[Edited on 2-4-2004 by kinglizard]

Um...we ORBIT the galactic center black hole, not are falling into it.

Even if the Sun lasted forever, we are far out enough and fast enough that we are in orbit, not falling inward.

Not everything falls into black holes, many things orbit them. The Sun and most the stars about half way out and further in our galaxy will never fall into the galactic black hole unless something DRASTICALY alters thier orbits.

Originally posted by Quest
Um...we ORBIT the galactic center black hole, not are falling into it.

Even if the Sun lasted forever, we are far out enough and fast enough that we are in orbit, not falling inward.

Not everything falls into black holes, many things orbit them. The Sun and most the stars about half way out and further in our galaxy will never fall into the galactic black hole unless something DRASTICALY alters thier orbits.

The Super Massive Black Hole has everything in the galaxy in its grasp. If the black hole continues to feed on its nearest stars it�s power will increase and pull the next star a bit closer until it consumes that one. A never ending cycle. Look at this photo of a spiral galaxy everything is spinning because of the black hole, nothing can escape.

Originally posted by kinglizard
That�s the point, impending doom is unavoidable by whatever means. We will need to leave not just this planets orbit but the entire galaxy. The only question is how.

and my point was that there's no escaping impending doom. other stars will die. other galaxies will have black holes.

quest also brought up the point that we are just in orbit. d'uh... i feel dumb for not even thinking of that.

Originally posted by kinglizard
The Super Massive Black Hole has everything in the galaxy in its grasp. If the black hole continues to feed on its nearest stars it�s power will increase and pull the next star a bit closer until it consumes that one. A never ending cycle. Look at this photo of a spiral galaxy everything is spinning because of the black hole, nothing can escape.

with the size of the blackhole and stars going into it can be comparable to comets and other debris hitting the sun. how much of a difference does it make? not much...

I doubt the human race will even exist by the time that happens. We've only been around for a million or so years as it stands.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by kinglizard
That�s the point, impending doom is unavoidable by whatever means. We will need to leave not just this planets orbit but the entire galaxy. The only question is how.

quest also brought up the point that we are just in orbit. d'uh... i feel dumb for not even thinking of that.

What are we orbiting? What does that orbit? We are orbiting not only the sun but the center of the galaxy. And at that center is s black hole.