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master_bacarra

First Known Planet To Survive Red-giant Phase Found

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LONDON (Reuters) - Astronomers have discovered the first known planet to survive its "red-giant" phase, a period when an aging star expands and engulfs bodies orbiting it.
Full story here.


I don't know about "first" since the article mentioned that the planet was seen by chance while studying the parent star. There could've been a lot of happenings like these before, but they're not documented. Had they not been studying the parent star, they probably wouldn't see this phenomenon as well.

Anyway, the point is we would know what would happen to our planet once our sun reaches the same red-giant phase. I remember seeing a documentary before in Discovery Channel about the life of the sun and what would happen after it consumes all its energy. They had the simulation of what would happen to Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter as the sun increases its size, engulfing the first three or four planets and melting the frozen gases of the farther regions of the solar system. The waters of the earth would evaporate completely due to the heat.

Now, the question remains if there would still be humans before this event happens to our own sun.

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by that time (if predictions about how old the sun is are correct) then we should already be having alliances with other intelligent species and would be able to either teleport earth to some other place or we can find a new home

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It may not be the first planet, but it sure is the first "known" planet to have survived the Red-giant phase. I never really got the chance to see that show on Discovery Channel but it's not hard to imagine what would happen if the hottest thing ever we would be exposed to is going to just take us in it. But I think, by the time the Earth would be sucked into the Sun, majority of the species would've already been dead. Or maybe the chances are our hopes and predictions would go all wrong and we might just extinct out. There is another show on Discovery which used to show how humans would find new homes and how the entire web of species on Earth would change.

by that time (if predictions about how old the sun is are correct) then we should already be having alliances with other intelligent species and would be able to either teleport earth to some other place or we can find a new home

But it's all hypothetical. There are enormous amounts of problems that we would face while even traveling through space, finding a new home is an all different ordeal. There were 5 I guess, it was another show on discovery. Now they are obviously trying to try and avoid these problems or rather stay away from then. Gene manipulation to survive from those extremely deadly radiations. Again gene mutation to trigger hibernation so that humans would survive those long-distance travels which might consume 100 to 200 years without aging out much either. Re-producing in space has loads of it's own problems too.

The only known hope now is that some extra-terrestrial species have been evolved way before us and would be way more advanced than us and so they would've figured this problem out. But then there are various problems for aliens once they manage coming down here to our home. Bacteria, levels of oxygen, change in gravity, air pressures, atmospheric cover and many other things. But then again hypothesis that they would be advanced enough to find a way out of all of these. But probably the biggest problem for us after they arrive home. Would they be hostile? We don't care. But what if they chose not to speak to us at all? Assuming they're advanced enough to have a language far more complex than any human language, they're more likely to rather converse with whales instead of us as they still have more complex languages than us as shown by studies. But being the most "successful" species on Earth, we do have some hope they'd care a bit for us. :P

I just know for sure this ain't happening soon enough. It will take time or these problems might never be solved. Something or the other IS going to kill is anyway, so why's the worry? If we find a way out, then it's good, otherwise if not this, something else will kill us. Maybe something quite much happening on Earth itself might make us extinct, you just don't know.

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