Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-28
When and How Our Race Will Ulti-
mately Die Out.
INTERVIEWS ] With ASTRONOMERS
In Three Million Years the Sun
Will Go Out,
IF STRUCK BY A METEOR
Written for The Evening Star.

| The end OIL the human race!
| How and when will 1t ultimately come
| about?
| This startling question 1 have lately put
| to eminent men of science.
| That man has but three million more
years to live is the opinion given by DR.. T.
]. ]. See the well-known astronomer of the
naval observatory. At the end of that time
the sun. which has already expended eight
| ninths of its energy, will have exhausted
| it's other ninth and will have burned out.
| The whole solar system will then be bathed
| in perpetual night. The earth and its sister
planets will continue. however, to travel on
| their orbits about the darkened sun. The
! latter will still be the center of the solar
system.
Man might continue to live in darkness IL
absence of his daylight supply were the
| only effect of the suns burning out.
| Within three hundred years. not to men
| ton three million. man will have learned to
manufacture artificial daylight But when
| the suns light goes out its heat will go
with 1t. The determination of all earthly
| life, such as now exists, will. in DIR. Sees
| opinion, result from cold. At the present
| time, he thinks, the sun is growing hotter.
1t probably will become twice as hot as It
| is now before beginning to cool But this
| does not mean that it will give the earth
| twice as much heat as it does now or that
| In summer thermometers will eventually go
up to 200 degrees in our zone. With the
| sun twice hot the earth might be even
| cooler than now. After doubling its own
| heat the sun will begin to lose it, The cool
| Ing and darkening of the earth will then
be gradual. There will be no sudden catas-
| trophe marking the determination of man
| kind and of other forms of life the astron-
| omer says. The great oceans will slowly
| freeze over. They will ultimately become
| absorbed by the land. Later our atmos-
| phere will cease to be vapor, and will lie
| like snow upon the earths crust.
End of Man In 3OO19OO A. d,
But why should we worry? Assume that
| the last earthly mortal freezes to death In
| the year 3Ool900 A. d. What relation will
| he be to his ancestors of today? Next pre-
| sumo that the average generation will con-
| unue during these thirty thousand centu-
| res. to measure thirty years as now
| Now, take slip of paper mile and a half
| long and write upon it the word great
| !0,T'S times. side by side. AT the end write
| grandson. Thus you have this last mans
| approximate relationship to his present an
cestors.
| But is not comet likely to hit us at
| some time before these 1900 900 years shall
have passed. I asked DR.. See.
/ suppose 1t did. 1t might knock down a
| skyscraper or two. Nothing worse would
happen replied he.
Are we not liable at some time to col
| Tide with another planet?"
| We hnd that the entire solar system is
| continually fastening in the direction ~
| the constellation of the Tyre. That dis
| tant group or planets you can now see al
most directly overhead. When We ulti-
fnate!y reach them we shall proba bly naes
| through without damage There is one
chance in million that we will strike one
| or their number. OF course IL we collide
VIII, WIN a noay relatively great in extent 1t
! may sweep us entirely away from the sun.
But 1t VIII take ages and ages before we
| VIII ever reach this constellation We arc
| qu.e,ly moving through space and if any
oay-r
path astronomers will give the signal nany
| centuries in advaRce of our reaching IT.
Lord Kelvin thinks that there is only
| enough oxygen in our atmosphere to last
mankind some 300 years. How abnut
| that?' ""out
Plant life will continue to convert our
caroonic acid gas back into oxygen as il
! has done for ages The earth's Vegetarian
Will not decrease as civilzatio advances
| The destruction Of our forests will never
| be effected long as mans intellect i'm
proves. Such vandalism will be prohibited
by law and some day mankind will see the
necessity OF replanting mighty forests
Moreover, l think that the human race will
! always center in the temperate zones Pop
ulation VIII never materially increase in the
! tropics. The jungles and thick vegetable
srowths of that belt will flourish more and
more, breathing out Increased oxygen
Furthermore. the burning of coal which
process consumes vast quantities of oxy-
| gen, will cease. Solar engines, storing lp
vast quantities of the suns heat will with
| IN the next century supply with our
| electricity. 1t will no longer be necessary
| then to consume extravagant quantities of
oxygen"
Earth Will BECOME Like Moon
Billions OF years. Nothing more def
mite Such is the lease given to earthly
| life by Astronomer Geo A. Hill, also of the
| naval observatory staff. THE earth will
| ultimately become like the moon" he con-
| tinued 'All water on our planets surface
Will gradually dry up We will grow
| colder and colder as a result of a loss of
| our moist atmosphere, which acts as
| blanket holding our heat back and pre-
| venting its escape into space. Our oceans
VIII ultimately be dry abysses All ami
| NAL and vegetable life will, OF course, go.
| Mankind will be dried up frozen out
| After moisture and vegetation vanish there
| Will be nothing left to keep the earths
crust dark. 1t will turn white, like the
! sands of our deserts, as it dries. Snow will
cease; There will be no electricity, no
thunderStorms."
| Isn't there possibility that some other
calamity will meanwhile put an end to
| earthly life?'
| There are two catastrophes which might