A common belief among the human population is that one day we are going to be forced to emigrate from earth to a new home. Surprisingly, there are many possible causes of this. Just some of them from Discover Magazine include; asteroid impact, gamma-ray burst, collapse of the vacuum, rogue black holes, giant solar flares, reversal of Earth's magnetic field, flood-basalt volcanism, global epidemics, global warming, ecosystem collapse, biotech disaster, particle accelerator mishap, nanotechnology disaster, environmental toxins, or global war. If any of these were to occur, the human race’s only option would be to leave earth. As of 2017 SpaceX, Mars One, NASA, and UAE are all attempting to get to Mars as a precursor for even further exploration such as getting to planets similar to Earth in chemical makeup and atmosphere. According to the European Southern Observatory the closest planet found so far is Ross 128 b; it is just eleven light years from our solar system and is very close to the conditions of
Earth. However, even with a current space shuttle's ability to travel 5 miles per second, one light year still would take 37,200 years to travel. Unfortunately, this means that current technology will not allow human to travel travel far enough to reach another planet( the Moon orbits the Earth rather than a star hence, it is not a planet). Thirty years ago, our current technology was the thing you would read about in the science fiction section. So no one can predict the advances engineers will make and what will be made possible within the next thirty years.
|