XmisterIS
Purveyor of fine nonsense
We all know that in several billion years time, the sun is going to explode and the Earth will be destroyed.
Luckily, I'll probably be dead by then, so it's no biggie.
Anyway, In a slightly maudlin' moment, I thought about what the transition from the Earth being habitable to uninhabitable will be like, and I came up with the following hypothetical scenario. Now, I'm no chemist, biologist of geologist and the last time I did chemistry was at A-Level, and I did it badly even then! (I got a C). But here it is anyway, if there's any chemists/biologists/geologists in the forum, I'd be interested to see what you think of my proposal for the death of the Earth:
Stage 1: The poles melt permanently and the deserts expand out from the equator. The only habitable regions are at the poles.
Stage 2: Even the poles turn to desert (if there's land there) and the last life clings on in super-hot desert conditions at the poles (probably only insects are left).
Stage 3: All rain stops, it's too hot. Life disappears.
Stage 4: The oceans start to evaporate away faster and faster, the Earth becomes swathed in a thick cloud layer, which produces a runaway greenhouse effect.
Stage 5: Eventually, what's left of the oceans boils away, leaving an arid, desert planet with a thick cloud layer.
Stage 6: The oxygen in the atmosphere begins to oxidise anything it touches. The nitrogen combines with the water vapour in the presence of the oxygen and forms concentrated nitric acid.
Stage 7: The Earth is now a bone-dry planet with a dry, corrosive atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and nitric acid, with nitric acid rain, which evaporates immediately.
So there we have it! What a cheery thought ...
Luckily, I'll probably be dead by then, so it's no biggie.
Anyway, In a slightly maudlin' moment, I thought about what the transition from the Earth being habitable to uninhabitable will be like, and I came up with the following hypothetical scenario. Now, I'm no chemist, biologist of geologist and the last time I did chemistry was at A-Level, and I did it badly even then! (I got a C). But here it is anyway, if there's any chemists/biologists/geologists in the forum, I'd be interested to see what you think of my proposal for the death of the Earth:
Stage 1: The poles melt permanently and the deserts expand out from the equator. The only habitable regions are at the poles.
Stage 2: Even the poles turn to desert (if there's land there) and the last life clings on in super-hot desert conditions at the poles (probably only insects are left).
Stage 3: All rain stops, it's too hot. Life disappears.
Stage 4: The oceans start to evaporate away faster and faster, the Earth becomes swathed in a thick cloud layer, which produces a runaway greenhouse effect.
Stage 5: Eventually, what's left of the oceans boils away, leaving an arid, desert planet with a thick cloud layer.
Stage 6: The oxygen in the atmosphere begins to oxidise anything it touches. The nitrogen combines with the water vapour in the presence of the oxygen and forms concentrated nitric acid.
Stage 7: The Earth is now a bone-dry planet with a dry, corrosive atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and nitric acid, with nitric acid rain, which evaporates immediately.
So there we have it! What a cheery thought ...
