Scientists issue visible ‘warning signs’ after NASA supercomputer predicted when world would end

A new study from the boffins at Toho University in Japan in collaboration with NASA have given us a potential date for the end of the world.

Scientists who know an awful lot more than us have determined what year we can expect the demise of our planet to take place on, which is a scary thought but it does also mean that all your issues will be whisked away once a presumed meteor destroys our blue planet.

Sorry Armageddon fans, but in reality, it's a far slower and far more boring end to life that Earth will face.

While theories have long circled about the apocalypse, they are often age-old prophecies determined by ancient civilisations.

But according to a study titled: 'The future lifespan of Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere', our planet's death will come as a result of the lifespan and evolution of the sun.

What will the end of the world look like? We'll probably never know (Getty Stock Images)

Supercomputer simulations have suggested when life, both human and microbial, could cease to exist, as the Sun continues to expand and emit more heat, becoming more dangerous and eventually making the surface of Earth uninhabitable.

According to 400,000 of these simulations, the year we can expect it all to end is 1,000,002,021.

It's not what you'd call around the corner, but this is said to be due to the surface becoming so hot that even the toughest forms of microscopic life will fail to survive, much like it is on Mercury.

Humanity isn't expected to live that long, which is good given that the oceans will have evaporated and the atmosphere would have thinned ten-fold.

Early warning signs

Scientists have highlighted some of the early signs which are already detectable today, which experts have warned of for years and yes, it's all to do with climate change and the Sun.

Here are the main things which point towards our planet heading for certain doom:

• Increasing solar activity, such as solar storms and coronal mass ejections - these affect Earth’s magnetic field and reduce atmospheric oxygen.
• Climate change - resulting in record-breaking global temperatures and melted ice caps, making sea levels rise.

While climate change has been ongoing for centuries, it is now becoming more human-driven and accelerating the processes in question, as we continue to burn fossil fuels and carry out deforestation.

Living creatures needing oxygen will be gone long before the world ends (Getty Stock Image)

The simulation also predicts that human life could end a lot earlier that the Sun's intensifying radiation triggers huge changes to the environment, as the deteriorating air quality and rising temperatures will make the planet impossible to live on.

These effects were modelled through simulations of climate change and solar radiation, as Kazumi Ozaki, the study’s lead author, said: “For many years, the lifespan of Earth’s biosphere has been discussed based on the steady brightening of the Sun.”

While he previously estimated that Earth would live for two billion years, it has more or less halved, as Ozaki added: “If true, one can expect atmospheric O₂ levels will also eventually decrease in the distant future.”

Unless species on Earth somehow adapt to live without oxygen, all existing life will no longer exist in a billion years.