
Immediately warn. There will be a lot of text and pictures.
The other day a neighbor came to me from the fourth floor and said that he had just come in contact with aliens at the exit of the store, who told him in secret that after two years, two months and two days, the world would end. At the same time, the brothers by reason took a bottle of vodka from a neighbor, and he clearly expected compensation. Having handed me, “as a competent person”, a drawing of a saving spacecraft (torn out of instructions for a Chinese juicer) and shooting a fifty-kopeck piece “before the payday”, the neighbor immediately evaporated. And I, putting my report aside (the boss would surely carry my head off), scored "the end of the world" in a search engine and ... to my own surprise, I found out that the neighbor was not so far from the truth.
Byaka from space
There is no doubt that sooner or later our planet will collide with the LARGE SPACE BAY, and the results of this collision may turn out to be sad not only for people, but also for most life forms on Earth.
Asteroid collision
After rereading a bunch of articles about the upcoming doomsday, I realized that our civilization has the greatest chance of dying from an asteroid, comet or other large space body falling to Earth.
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Immediately I recall the famous Tungussky meteorite, which fell in Siberia in 1908. He made an explosion a thousand times more powerful than a nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima. But the Tunguska meteorite was not as big as many people think - only 30-50 meters in diameter. You'd be surprised, but similar space wanderers, according to astronomers, visit our planet regularly, about once every 300 years. More often they fall into the ocean, or in other deserted places. Of course, not from humanistic considerations. Simply, humanity inhabits a very small part of the earth's surface - 70% of earthlings are satisfied with only 7% of the land area. However, according to probability theory, the chances of getting such a space “present” from Moscow, New York or Beijing are approximately equal. Of course, a global catastrophe will not happen in this case, but for a few dozen, or even hundreds of thousands of people, the end of the world will come exactly.
Slightly less, about once a quarter of a million years, more impressive pieces crash to Earth, and the resonance from them is much more significant. Moreover, here it doesn’t matter at all what your side or cheek will put the Earth under attack - a half-kilometer asteroid is quite capable of destroying modern civilization. After such a blow, a tremendous amount of energy will be released, and a real fire vortex will rush around the planet. And when a global fire breaks out, the global glaciation will come. Why, you ask? The fact is that in such a scenario such a mass of dust, ash and smoke rises into the atmosphere, so that sunlight can hardly reach the surface of the Earth. The planet will plunge into darkness and cold. By the way, according to a number of scientists, the asteroid colliding with the Earth destroyed the population of dinosaurs.
The death of dinosaurs is not the only evidence of a past global catastrophe. Recently I found out about an interesting experiment of physiologists, which proves that once the earthly day lasted not 24, but 36 hours (God forbid the chief will read about this). The participants in the experiment were in a room in which they could not observe the change of time of day. As a result, after a few days, they spontaneously switched to the 18-hour sleep mode (this is what the boss must tell about) and the 18-hour wakefulness. What is this, if not the ancient rhythm of life, inherited by us along with the mysterious megaliths and drawings in the Nazca desert from a lost civilization? It is likely that the cause of its death also served as a large asteroid, which at the same time changed the orbital period of our planet around its own axis.
And if a thing with a diameter of more than 5 km flies to us, there will not even be a trace of life on Earth.
Killer rays
The question arises, where our governments and scientists are looking at - they are building all kinds of defense systems from each other, and look down on us so that we don’t have time to whine. In fact, as far as I understand, “they are working on this problem” - in our country, in the States, and in Europe. Although, in my opinion, not too brightly, but there is hope that in a couple of decades or two we will still be able to slam a dangerous asteroid at further approaches or change its trajectory. True, it is still impossible to sleep peacefully, because asteroids, though terrible, but, alas, far from being the only weapon of reprisal of our fragile world in the hands of the all-powerful cosmos.
What are at least flashes of gamma radiation from collapsing stars, whose energy is quadrillion times more powerful than the energy emitted by the sun. Had such a spike in the neighborhood of our galaxy (and scientists do not exclude such a possibility), and a collision with an asteroid will seem to humanity to be an easy escape from torment. Harsh radiation will quickly destroy the ozone layer, with the result that the Earth’s atmosphere cannot protect us from the ultraviolet radiation of the Sun. Anyone who does not have time to die from skin cancer and radiation sickness, will die from suffocation, as the ultraviolet rays burn plants, and most importantly, they destroy oceanic phytoplankton - the main factory producing oxygen on Earth.
Black holes
However, it is not clear what is easier: to suffer from cancer or to wait for the imminent end to come, while remaining completely healthy (I, however, neither do). Namely, such a scenario is prepared for us by black holes - the dying stars of the Universe. The monstrous gravitational force of a black hole does not allow even photons — particles of light — to leave its surface, which is why it is called black. For the destruction of the Earth, only one black hole that appeared within the solar system is enough, while, according to astrophysicists, there are more than 10 million black holes in our galaxy.
Scientists believe the invasion of the black hole in our world is unlikely, but they don’t take this opportunity away. The news of the impending destruction of the planet in the black abyss will come to us several decades before the catastrophe - astronomers will calculate the approach of the space monster by the changes in the orbits of space bodies affected by the all-absorbing gravity, but it will be impossible to do anything. The only means of salvation - to run from the hole with superlight speed - even theoretically unattainable. Therefore, I personally like another hypothesis - that a black hole is a bridge to another dimension.
Galactic collapse
I repeat that, according to astrophysicists, black holes themselves do not carry an obvious threat to us, since it is almost impossible to make such a colossus move from its orbit and rush into the Solar System. Is that even more monstrous force will interfere in the process. And she, alas, also exists. This is the power of intergalactic interaction, which was fixed in 2006 by the Hubble telescope: two neighboring ones approached one of the galaxies in the constellation of Southern Fish, as a result of which the first was literally torn apart by gravity. Southern Fish, of course, is far, but who can guarantee that the native Milky Way someday will not suffer the same fate.
Moreover, there is incontrovertible evidence that a couple of billions of years ago, our galaxy had experience of interacting with its neighbor, and according to forecasts, in 3 billion years the Milky Way will meet with the Andromeda Nebula. Perhaps this meeting will become so emotional that it will not be good for even black holes, and at least one of them may well approach the Earth at a critical distance. However, humanity, most likely, this fact will no longer worry, for the galactic catastrophe itself will mean the end of the world for us. Nafig, I'll go drink coffee.
The birth of a new world
Yesterday's coffee was with brandy. Frankly, cognac was a little more than coffee. In general, putting myself in the morning in order, I knew for sure that everything new is born in agony. I do not know how the creator of the universe suffered, but scientists say that the Universe owes its present diversity to a first explosion, a catastrophe that entailed a chain of irreversible reactions and transformations, as a result of which the Universe began to expand. I honestly don’t understand how the Universe can expand, because it’s already infinite. None of the familiar physicists clearly could tell me about it. But frightened by the fact that its next update can occur at any time. Perhaps already now, when you read these lines.
What can happen in this case? Yes, anything! For example, a change in the properties of a substance is the degeneration of a vacuum into a new stable form and other cosmogonic metamorphoses, which will lead to the next energy explosion and the birth of a new world. Probably, this new world will be much better than before, but it is obvious that it will be without us.
Death in the arms of the sun
Most of the processes occurring on Earth, whether it be flu epidemics or corn crops, are directly related to periods of solar activity. This is very interesting in Chizhevsky written. Did not read "Earth Echo of Solar Storms"? Highly recommend.
However, the Sun, like Gogol's Taras Bulba, from a parent may well become a destroyer of life, and our planet, paraphrasing Chizhevsky, will begin to agonize in his arms. For this, it will be enough not even an explosion, but a super-powerful flare on the Sun, as a result of which the lighted side of the Earth will burn to the ground, and the inhabitants of the opposite hemisphere will await the dawn with horror.
Another option is possible - a longer, but no less cruel. Hyperactivity of the Sun can lead to loss of the ozone layer with all the attendant "charms" of exposure to ultraviolet radiation (see
Killer rays ). A similar result can be caused by a strong weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field, which also covers us from the destructive effects of cosmic radiation. Incidentally, since 2002, the magnetic field of the planet has weakened by an average of 2% annually.
An equally scary scenario of global glaciation is equally likely. From the sun's rays, the Earth can be permanently covered by dust or ash - as a result of meteorite bombardment, a powerful volcanic eruption or a nuclear war.
But even if our star does not present such surprises, it still carries the doom for our planet. Before becoming a cooling white dwarf, the Sun will turn into a red giant, and will expand so much that its orbit will pass inside the Earth's orbit. Do I need to comment on the consequences of this process for our planet? It comforts that this will not happen soon, in a few billion years. Grieves that still happen. But perhaps by this time humanity will find other livable planets. And in advance will mark the housewarming (most importantly, do not forget to grab with a cat).
Aliens will destroy us
People often suffer from lack of communication. Yesterday, an acquaintance cried that another girlfriend had left (frankly, I think that he drove her out, but listening to, he nodded his head and pretended that he was very sympathetic). However, in a global sense, loneliness is helpful. In any case, humanity still feels quite alone in loneliness, although at times it pretends to be longing for brothers for reason, lost somewhere in the expanses of the Universe.
Supporters of the civilization approach in science (by the way, Yasin Evgeny Grigorievich reads very interesting lectures) warn that contact with a more developed alien mind is fraught with the death of humanity even if the aliens do not destroy us in the fight for earthly resources or spheres of influence. Earthly history suggests that the lowest form is always inferior to the highest. Thus, Neanderthals completely disappeared in a collision with the Cro-Magnons, although they hardly fought bloody battles for the habitat due to the total small population of the time, and the Aztec and Mayan cultures collapsed under the pressure of a more progressive Western civilization. So - glory to loneliness!
Not necessarily in flying saucers
I personally especially do not believe in aliens - neither evil nor good, or rather, the fact that they will someday be concerned with us. But who said that mysterious aliens capable of destroying our civilization must necessarily be androids?
Enough with us and viruses, or other forms of life unknown to us, capable of causing fatal diseases and resistant to the action of earthly antibiotics. They can get to Earth in a variety of ways - for example, with imported alien soil samples, or upon arriving at a block of cosmic ice, which from time to time falls on our planet in the form of fragments of comets. What is important is not the delivery method, but the result, which may be the most deplorable for us. However, viruses that can kill most of humanity are enough on Mother Earth.
Or byaka
In general, our planet, and without space participation, is quite independently able to deal with humanity as with the look of it bored. A quick glance at the myths of different nations is enough to discover a lot in common. For example, the legend of the Flood, as a result of which, apart from Noah, no one survived with the company. By the way, can someone tell the phone a good and inexpensive coach for swimming in open water?
In general, in the history of a bunch of examples of the death of cities, countries and entire civilizations due to natural disasters. For example, about 25 thousand years ago, a powerful eruption of a volcano literally smashed to shreds the whole island of Santorin, destroying the ancient Minoan civilization. It is terrible to imagine what will happen if all the volcanoes of Kamchatka simultaneously start working.
However, all the volcanoes and do not need - just one, but very large. For example, Yellowstone (100 km long, 30 km wide), Wyoming, USA. And what is most terrible, according to some forecasts, it will explode, and, very soon - in 2074. In the very first minutes since the beginning of the catastrophe, all living things within a radius of more than 700 km will die. Very quickly, the west coast of the United States will be virtually destroyed. After some time, a layer of ash to 8 centimeters will cover the whole world. And then the scourge will grow like a snowball. The American hyperdension is likely to provoke the awakening of other volcanoes around the world, which, in turn, will cause a tsunami. The whole ecology of the planet will be broken. Clouds of ash and dust will close the sun and remain in the atmosphere for a long time. According to some forecasts, the temperature will drop by 15-20 degrees. In fact, there will be winter on the planet all the time. And so for several years. As a result, agriculture will die down and global hunger will come.
It turns out that with some external forces from far space we still have hope to somehow cope, and before the elements of our home planet we find ourselves completely helpless.
Apocalypse do it yourself
I do not know about you, but in my stairwell the end of the world happens regularly. One of these days, making my way gropingly, once again stumbled over a neighbor who was sleeping peacefully between the third and fourth floors (I wonder how much he already owes me). And it was thought that the options for the self-destruction of humanity are no less than the scenarios of natural disasters. Nuclear (chemical, bacteriological) war, global terrorist attack, ecological imbalance, overpopulation problem, war with artificial intelligence, unpredictable consequences of genetic engineering and other inventions, risky scientific experiments such as the andron collider, general drug addiction, total infertility ... The list goes on and on will be a clear indicator of human stupidity and rash intervention in the natural course of events.
In the old Soviet film “Physics” there is an episode where one of the characters, a mentally ill scientist, tells another that it is unwise to press the lighting button without having a clue about the nature of the electric current. He explained this by the fact that no one really knows how the “flow of charged particles through a conductor” will behave at a given time in a given point in space. It’s a good idea for a madman, isn’t it? We are accustomed to perform many actions every day with a predictable, as it seems to us, result: we press the button - the elevator goes, we turn the key - the engine starts, we dial the number - we are talking on the phone. Well, what kind of trouble can happen when you click the switch? Maximum - blown bulb.
And if you think about what this conviction is based on, it will turn out that basically - on personal experience. "I have already turned on the light bulb a thousand times and the light came on, therefore, the same thing should happen 1001 times." Similarly, the crucian thinks, swallowing the earthworm, and the next second suddenly finds itself in an alien environment, in full power of the angler.
Where are the guarantees that the laws of physics discovered by mankind, which more or less clearly explain the essence of things, will be fair forever? And what is known about the nature of those phenomena that have scientific explanations? We can weigh an object, or even an elementary particle, with an amazing imagination, but we have no idea where such a value as mass comes from, and whether this concept is constant. In other words, the modern materialistic view of the world, by and large, rests on a single postulate, and, moreover, not too convincing: everything happens this way, and not the other way, because so far it has happened this way.
Now imagine that something in the world has changed. It is not known what has changed. And everything will not be as before, but in a different way. We do not know how it is, in a different way, but no one asks us. We turn on the coffee maker - and find ourselves in zero gravity, click the TV remote control - and break up into atoms, flush the toilet - and fall into a black hole. In short, there is an infinite number of options for the end of the world. But one will suffice from us.
“And this will pass,” the sage laughed at the descendants who disturbed his ashes. The short phrase of Solomon contains the whole idea of ​​a person about the surrounding space. Everything passes, there is nothing eternal. Consequently, someday our familiar world will fly to hell, and that very end of the world, which many fear, some will wait, and some will predict, will come. No one knows exactly what the apocalypse will be. But the possible scenarios of this event can be represented.
Of course, if you constantly scroll through the pictures of possible apocalyptic horrors in your head, not for long and go crazy. But, as the ancients said, thinking about life, remember death. In other words, you need to learn to appreciate the precious moments of our being, which gave us space. After all, it is in our power to make the world kinder, and the lives of our loved ones are happier. And in this case, who knows, suddenly someone’s invisible wise hand will take and protect us from terrible cataclysms - in the name of the triumph of good and total harmony.
Aleksey Zavadskikh and several more habra-mates.