While some people fear that a comet is going to hit the Earth and bring humans to their knees, others are focused on Gliese-710. In this article, you will encounter end-of-the-world theories that include menacing red dwarf stars and elements of physics going awry.
A Solar Collision
Not visible to the naked eye, the red dwarf star called Gliese-710 is becoming easier to detect in the sky as time passes. Some believe that one day the star will come close enough to Earth that it could destroy our solar system. One theory is that it will tear apart the planet with the help of gravity, while others fear being hit by the Oort cloud , a rather large collection of solar dust, ice, and rocks the size of planets. Millions of these threats are found surrounding our solar system and could become an issue for the planet Earth.
If Gliese-710 hits the cloud, it would send asteroids the size of planets in our path. The number would be too great to handle in just one day , and it could take thousands of years before the threats would have passed.
Today, the star is rather far away and would take more than one million years to even reach our solar system. It is found in the constellation Serpens Cauda with an apparent visual magnitude of 9.69.
However, Gliese is not the only star that is located close to us.
There are around eight more to be concerned with that are closer to Earth. In about 10,000 years, Barnard’s Star (sometimes called Barnard’s “Runaway” Star) is a red dwarf star on a route to hit the planet. The star has a very low mass and is situated about six light-years away from Earth in the constellation called Ophiuchus , also referred to as the snake-holder. Barnard’s Star is considered as the 4th closest individual star that is known to the Sun.
A twin system called Alpha Cen A/B is next in line to become an issue. There is the possibility that this star could pull Earth in and burn up the planet. It could also reposition the planet to a part of space that causes the world to freeze up. Predicting the pathway of a star is no easy task and miscalculations could mean that the Earth is in no danger. In order for this to happen, they would have to be off course for billions of miles.
The Fear of Constants Getting Out of Hand
The world is made up of constants that are not supposed to really change. Physicists announced in 2001 that something odd was happening. One of the constants known as the ‘fine-structure constant’ was slowly getting bigger. The physics community quickly went into a frenzy and the debates started to fly. It has prompted other scientists to look into the changes of the world more closely, such as the mass of the proton and the speed of light.
Some theorize that the universe could collapse if constants truly went haywire. Some of the theories include stars burning up within seconds, light bending around corners, people vanishing without a trace, the disappearance of the atmosphere, and a complete darkness over the world.