Exact date life on Earth will end, according to a supercomputer
Hiyah Zaidi Published May 12, 2025 2:45pm Link is copied Comments One day the Earth will die and human life as we know it will go with it. But, the question is, when will this happen, and how will this come about? A team of experts have set out to answer the question with the help of a supercomputer by playing out the future of our planet 400,000 times. Here's what you need to know... (Picture: Getty) Researchers from Toho University used planetary modelling from Nasa to create simulations tracking how Earth's atmosphere is likely to evolve. And it found that in the distant future the Earth will run out of oxygen (Picture: Getty) The simulations predicted that in one billion years (the year 1,000,002,021 to be exact) the air we breathe will disappear, making survival impossible. As the Sun gets older, it will become hotter and brighter, slowly affecting Earth's delicate climate which is finely balanced to support life (Picture: Getty) Water will begin to evaporate, cloud cover will move and surface temperatures will rise. Then, this increase in heat will weaken the carbon cycle, which will end up killing plants as they can no longer effectively turn sunlight into oxygen in a process known as photosynthesis. Without plants, oxygen will no longer be produced (Picture: Getty) As the oxygen levels plummet, the atmosphere would become something like it was before human life existed. This was a state of high methane, which although theoretically could sustain life, it would be very different to any life we know so far. So, to find when this would happen, the researchers ran the computer simulation over 400,000 times, varying different aspects of the model each time (Picture: Getty) Kazumi Ozaki, Assistant Professor at Toho University, said: 'For many years, the lifespan of Earth's biosphere has been discussed based on scientific knowledge about the steady brightening of the Sun and global carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle. One of the corollaries of such a theoretical framework is a continuous decline in atmospheric CO2 levels and global warming on geological timescales. It's generally thought Earth's biosphere will come to an end in two billion years due to the combination of overheating and CO2 scarcity for photosynthesis. If true, one can expect atmospheric O2 levels will also eventually decrease in the distant future. However, it remains unclear exactly when and how this will occur' (Picture: Getty) So, what will happen in one billion years? The researchers say that after this time 'rapid deoxygenation' will occur, and our atmosphere will be reminiscent of early Earth before the Great Oxidation Event, 2.5 billion years ago. What caused the Great Oxidation Event is unknown but it thought that single-celled organisms are largely responsible for it (Picture: Getty)
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