Sun will heat up Earth destructing its oxygen levels, ending life in billion years: Study

A recent study supported by NASA’s exoplanet habitability research has concluded that a billion years from now, the Earth will lose its oxygen. The study has looked into the future of Earth as NASA wanted to study closely what will happen to life on Earth. The research suggests that the sun will eventually heat up the earth to an extent where it will become a dried-up husk with no complex life.

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Level of oxygen will fall tremendously in a billion years

The Earth has survived enormous asteroid impacts, megavolcanoes among various other calamities. But a recent study has found out that the nature of sun, which is the only source of heat for our planet, may become the reason for its destruction. Even though, it may take a billion years to reach that level, it may be the ultimate fate of our planet.

Scientists have tried to extrapolate the properties of Earth. Kazumi Ozaki at Toho University in Japan and Chris Reinhard at the Georgia Institute of Technology made a model of the Earth’s climate, biology and geology to see how it will change. According to them, the oxygenated atmosphere of our planet of not a permanent feature. 2.4 billion years ago, the earth had very little oxygenated atmosphere.

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Back then cyanobacteria evolved to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and this is known as the Great Oxidation Event. This further gave rise to all the forms of multicellular life that we have on our planet today. The studies show that as stars age, they get hotter and similarly, our solar system’s star, is about a billion years from roasting the Earth because if the temperature on the sun increases, it will heat up the surface of the earth and change life here tremendously.

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The study also shows that in a billion years, the sun will become hot enough to break down carbon dioxide. This means that the levels of carbon dioxide will become so low that plants who survive by photosynthesis, will be unable to survive. This further means that humans will not be able to survive as the level of oxygen will fall.

The scientists have claimed in their study, published in Nature Geoscience, that it could take 10,000 years for oxygen levels to drop to a millionth of what it is now. While this may sound like a lot of years, scientists claim that it is a blink of the eye in geological terms. Moreover, Methane levels will also begin to increase and reach 10,000 times more than the levels that are seen today.

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