Most life on the surface would quickly perish, but some bacteria could survive on the meagre heat venting up from the Earth's core, says Adams of the University of Michigan, Michigan. He estimates that this geological hot-water bottle could sustain life for another 30,000 million years before finally chilling out. The possibility of this event is about 1 in 100,000, Adams says in new research soon to be published in Icarus , the official journal of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. This may seem hopeful, but the massive timescale involved warps the statistics. The chances of Elvis Presley strolling into your local bar are seriously improved if you give him 3,500 million years in which to do it.
Bacteria are all very well, but what about people.
Yes, says Adams, but only barely. Earth's only chance of immortality is an intergalactic lifeboat. If a rogue red dwarf star hoves up close enough in the nick of time, its gravity could pull us into orbit around it. He says the chances of this occurring are about 1 in 3,000,000, but makes no guarantees about the weather. Assuming that the Earth is forced to remain and meet its fate, things will get uncomfortably warm.