Question over what happened to Earth after ending of Interstellar has finally been answered

Interstellar is a film that leaves a number of questions up to the audience to decide.

Whether that be what 'really’ happens to Coop at the end of the film, the meaning behind the ticking sound in the background of the planet they visit, the film is full of open ended questions that the audience are left to decide on for themselves.

One of these many questions asked is what happened to Earth at the end of the film.

The Christopher Nolan movie centres around astronauts being sent through a wormhole so they can try and find another habitable planet.

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Keira Knightley, and Jessica Chastain, the film implies that Earth has since become unliveable.

Whilst the film doesn’t necessarily give the answers wrapped in a little bow, one fan on Reddit has revealed the fate of Earth via the book The Science of Interstellar.

The book was written by Kip Thorne, a Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist who advised on the science of the film, with a foreword from Nolan.

The comment points to the fact the movie implies that Earth is ‘unliveable for humans’ before adding: “Secondly, blight continues to thrive on nitrogen gas and as it does, earth gets less and less oxygen.

“So, by the laters years of the last generation on earth, no large aerobic organisms can possibly survive due to the lack of oxygen.

Jessica Chastain's character attempts to solve the gravity problem throughout the film (Warner Brothers)

“Earth’s atmosphere is no longer capable of sustaining a civilisation like ours. Unless we become capable of terraforming an entire planet’s atmosphere, humanity likely won’t be returning from Edmund’s.”

Going on to discuss what happens to those left on the surface, it is revealed that Coop's daughter, Murphy Cooper (played by Chastain), can 'harness gravity and lift several colonies to evacuate likely a few million people who still remain on the surface into space'.

The comment goes on to say: “This is straight from the book The Science of Interstellar: the type of gravitational manipulation required to lift multiple colonies of that size with a rocket inevitable alters the core of the planet to reduce its gravitational pull on objects above the surface (such as the stations).

The film ends with Coop reuniting with Murphy, but doesn't state what happened to earth (Warner Brothers)

“As a result, the core of the earth springs outward, causing cataclysmic seismic events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.

“So, the earth was severely damaged in the process of lifting the centrifugal colonies off the surface, in addition to having no food, oxygen, or clean air.”

One reply points out that the book implies that ‘Earth is probably irreversibly destroyed or have been destroyed in the space station launch process’, to which the original commenter says: “Yup, I saw that in pages 274-275.

“No oxygen, no clean air, no fruits and vegetables, no animals, then abrupt volcanic activity, tsunamis, earth shattering earthquakes, yikes!”

So if you thought that finding out that Coop might secretly be dead at the end of Interstellar wasn’t sad enough, the Earth being irrevocably destroyed is a nice little added detail to cheer you up.