Scientists have confirmed when they believe Elon Musk's bleak doomsday prediction regarding the end of humanity could come true.
For some reason, we love predicting when the Earth will finally become uninhabitable for the human race, whether that be due to a nuclear war, an out-of-control asteroid or thanks to our own stupidity amid the ongoing climate crisis.
If you're of a certain age, you will remember back to 2012 when many thought the world was going to end, but the reality is that these doomsday warnings come about all the time, as we saw with a '1,000-year-old prediction' revealed in Vatican City following the announcement of the new pope earlier this week.
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Musk recently suggested that he expects the Earth to be 'incinerated' and that's why he is so keen for humanity to find a way to live in space, which is perhaps no surprise when you consider he's been part of space projects that include sending a Tesla up there.
Speaking to Fox's Jesse Watters on Monday (5 May), Musk said: "It’s not about going to Mars to visit once, but it is to make life multi-planetary so that we can expand the scope and scale of consciousness to better understand the nature of the universe and to ensure the long-term survival of civilisation in the hopefully unlikely event that something terrible happens to Earth that there is a continuance of consciousness on Mars."
The SpaceX CEO added: "That’s one of the benefits from Mars, it’s life insurance collectively. Eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the Sun, the Sun is gradually expanding, and so we do at some point need to be a multi-planet civilisation because Earth will be incinerated."
Researchers from Tōhō University in Japan have come up with a rough date for when that could happen, using advanced supercomputers and mathematical models to predict the Sun's long-term evolution.
In a study published in the Nature Geoscience journal, they estimate that, unless the human race can adapt to new surroundings, the Earth will become uninhabitable for us by the year 1,000,002,021. Researchers believe the Sun will grow hotter and brighter, raising global temperatures and gradually reducing oxygen levels.
It was also discovered that in approximately five billion years' time, the Sun will enter its red giant phase and will likely engulf close-by planets, including Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth. So, if you're reading this in the year five billion, best of luck.
We have already seen the damage that the Earth's rise in temperature has done, with catastrophic consequences should some of the biggest glaciers melt in the next few years.
But it seems as if we have a while to wait until we can officially no longer live on this planet, so rather you than me Elon when it comes to emulating David Bowie and attempting life on Mars.
James Moorhouse