5 deadly events in space that could annihilate human life on Earth

The Earth seen from a satellite imagery composite of NASA in the early 2000s. Even though it may seem like a daunting challenge to end all human life on the planet from a external threat, the universe is more than ready to take up the challenge.NASA / Blue Marble Project

The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was the largest volcanic eruption to occur in our lives. One of its magnitudes about 10,000 times larger could threaten human life on Earth, and perhaps volcanism has been at the origin of at least one of our previous major mass extinctions. .Albert Garcia

A measure of biodiversity and changes in the number of genera existing at a given time to identify major extinction events over the last 500 million years. They are not periodic and only the most recent (65 million years ago) has a known cause.Albert Mestre, Wikimedia Commons user, with data from Rohde, R.A., and Muller, R.A.

A large, fast moving mass that hits the Earth would certainly be capable of causing a mass extinction event. However, such events seem to be relatively rare. Even though asteroid and comet strikes are common, an attack that causes massive extinction may be rare enough that no such strike will occur for billions of years.Don Davis (work commissioned by NASA)

The comet at the origin of the Perseid meteorite shower, the comet Swift-Tuttle, was photographed during its last run in the internal solar system in 1992. The influence of the gravity of other planets could, however, radically change its orbit. making it a potential threat to the Earth in 4479. It was named by NASA as the most dangerous object that humanity has known.NASA

GRB 090423, this illustration of the farthest gamma ray burst ever detected, seems to be typical of the fastest gamma-ray bursts. When one or two objects violently form a black hole, such as during a fusion of neutron stars, a brief explosion of gamma rays followed by an infrared street light (when we have the chance) allows us to know more about these events. The gamma rays of this event lasted only 10 seconds, but Nial Tanvir and her team discovered infrared reverberation using the UKIRT telescope 20 minutes after the scene burst.ESO / A. Roquette

What we perceive as a gamma surge is now known to have at least one identified cause: the fusion of neutron stars. If one of the jets from these fusions is directed to Earth and that it is close enough (in approximately 6,000 light-years), it could destroy the ozone layer, which would result in the death of humanity.NASA / JPL

70,000 years ago, a pair of brown dwarves known as the star of Scholz, on the verge of melting the fusion of hydrogen in its core, was crossing the Oort cloud of the solar system. Stars, failed stars and stellar remains cross our solar system several times a million years.Jos & oacute; A. Pe & ntilde; as / SINC

During the 4.5 billion years of history of our solar system, the probability that a star is as close to one of the planets as our sun is to Pluto is about 1 in 10,000; the probability that a star is approaching as much of a planet as the east sun of the Earth (which would severely disrupt our orbit and would cause a gravitational ejection from the Earth) is less than 1 in 1 000 000 000. But if that happened, the Earth would freeze quickly and human life would disappear.Kevin Gill / flickr

Optical composite / mosaic of the Crab Nebula taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The different colors correspond to different elements and reveal the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, silicon, etc., all separated in mass. If the Earth was located in this nebula, which is currently spreading about 10 light-years, it could cause an extinction event for humanity.NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

Cassiopeia A, the rest of the supernova, contains signatures of a wide variety of elements of the periodic table and would have emitted huge amounts of radiation when it exploded for the first time. Type II supernovae are the most common supernova class, but it would only take a few light-years to eliminate our ozone layer, which should be so rare that the estimated frequency is less than once every other time. a few billion years.NASA / CXC / SAO

The size, brightness and temperature of the Sun have increased according to the curves above and these three quantities will continue to evolve as shown by their respective lines in the future. From here to about 2 billion years ago, its brightness will be large enough to boil the oceans of the Earth, thus ending life on our planet.Wikimedia Commons user RJHall, based on Ribas, Ignasi (2010)

Nowadays on Earth, the ocean water only bubbles when lava or other superheated material enters it. But in the distant future, the Sun 's energy will be sufficient to do so, and on a global scale.Jennifer Williams / flickr

If all else fails, we can be certain that the evolution of the Sun will be the death of all life on Earth. Long before we reach the stage of the red giant, a stellar evolution will cause a rather large increase in the brightness of the Sun to boil the Earth's oceans, which will surely eliminate humanity, if not all. life on Earth.Oliverbeatson from Wikimedia Commons / public domain

The Earth seen from a satellite imagery composite of NASA in the early 2000s. Even though it may seem like a daunting challenge to end all human life on the planet from a external threat, the universe is more than ready to take up the challenge.NASA / Blue Marble Project

The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was the largest volcanic eruption to occur in our lives. One of its magnitudes about 10,000 times larger could threaten human life on Earth, and perhaps volcanism has been at the origin of at least one of our previous major mass extinctions. .Albert Garcia

A measure of biodiversity and changes in the number of genera existing at a given time to identify major extinction events over the last 500 million years. They are not periodic and only the most recent (65 million years ago) has a known cause.Albert Mestre, Wikimedia Commons user, with data from Rohde, R.A., and Muller, R.A.

A large, fast moving mass that hits the Earth would certainly be capable of causing a mass extinction event. However, such events seem to be relatively rare. Even though asteroid and comet strikes are common, an attack that causes massive extinction may be rare enough that no such strike will occur before billions of years ago.Don Davis (work commissioned by NASA)

The comet at the origin of the Perseid meteorite shower, the comet Swift-Tuttle, was photographed during its last run in the internal solar system in 1992. The influence of the gravity of other planets could, however, radically change its orbit. making it a potential threat to the Earth in 4479. It was named by NASA as the most dangerous object that humanity has known.NASA

GRB 090423, this illustration of the farthest gamma ray burst ever detected, seems to be typical of the fastest gamma-ray bursts. When one or two objects violently form a black hole, such as during a fusion of neutron stars, a brief explosion of gamma rays followed by an infrared street light (when we have the chance) allows us to know more about these events. The gamma rays of this event lasted only 10 seconds, but Nial Tanvir and her team discovered infrared reverberation using the UKIRT telescope 20 minutes after the scene burst.ESO / A. Roquette

What we perceive as a gamma surge is now known to have at least one identified cause: the fusion of neutron stars. If one of the jets from these fusions is directed to Earth and that it is close enough (in approximately 6,000 light-years), it could destroy the ozone layer, which would result in the death of humanity.NASA / JPL

70,000 years ago, a pair of brown dwarves known as the star of Scholz, on the verge of melting the fusion of hydrogen in its core, was crossing the Oort cloud of the solar system. Stars, failed stars and stellar remains cross our solar system several times a million years.José A. Peñas / SINC

During the 4.5 billion years of history of our solar system, the probability that a star is as close to one of the planets as our sun is to Pluto is about 1 in 10,000; the probability that a star is approaching as much of a planet as the east sun of the Earth (which would severely disrupt our orbit and would cause a gravitational ejection from the Earth) is less than 1 in 1 000 000 000. But if that happened, the Earth would freeze quickly and human life would disappear.Kevin Gill / flickr

Optical composite / mosaic of the Crab Nebula taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The different colors correspond to different elements and reveal the presence of hydrogen, oxygen, silicon, etc., all separated in mass. If the Earth was located in this nebula, which is currently spreading about 10 light-years, it could cause an extinction event for humanity.NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)

Cassiopeia A, the rest of the supernova, contains signatures of a wide variety of elements of the periodic table and would have emitted huge amounts of radiation when it exploded for the first time. Type II supernovae are the most common supernova class, but it would only take a few light-years to eliminate our ozone layer, which should be so rare that the estimated frequency is less than once every other time. a few billion years.NASA / CXC / SAO

The size, brightness and temperature of the Sun have increased according to the curves above, and these three quantities will continue to evolve as shown by their respective lines in the future. From here to about 2 billion years ago, its brightness will be large enough to boil the oceans of the Earth, thus ending life on our planet.Wikimedia Commons user RJHall, based on Ribas, Ignasi (2010)

Nowadays on Earth, the ocean water only bubbles when lava or other superheated material enters it. But in the distant future, the Sun 's energy will be sufficient to do so, and on a global scale.Jennifer Williams / flickr

If all else fails, we can be certain that the evolution of the Sun will be the death of all life on Earth. Long before we reach the stage of the red giant, a stellar evolution will cause a rather large increase in the brightness of the Sun to boil the Earth's oceans, which will surely eliminate humanity, if not all. life on Earth.Oliverbeatson from Wikimedia Commons / public domain