Future of the Earth (Paperback)

The future of the Earth will be determined by a variety of physical factors, including increases in the luminosity of the Sun, loss of heat energy from the Earth's core, perturbations by the other bodies in the Solar System and the biochemistry at the Earth's surface. The planet will continue to undergo glaciation cycles and will produce a supercontinent in 250-350 million years. After 1-2 billion years from now, the steady increase in solar radiation will result in the loss of the oceans and the cessation of continental drift. In four billion years from the present, a runaway greenhouse effect will occur. By that point, most if no all of the life on the surface will be extinct. The ultimate fate of the planet is most likely to be absorbed by the Sun in about 7.5 billion years, after the star has entered the red giant phase.