March 20, 2008--7.59 Billion Years

In 1833, in upstate New York, William Miller, a prosperous farmer and lay Baptist minister revealed that, from a close reading of the Bible, he calculated that at some time during 1843 Christ would return and that would launch a series of events leading to the End of Days. The Apocalypse, the end of the world, and the Last Judgment.

Religious fervor of this kind was so widespread and hot at that time and in that region of New York that it came to be called the Burned-Over District. A few years earlier, in much the same location, as further evidence that this was a religiously special place, Joseph Smith claimed that he found the golden tablets upon which the Book of Mormon was inscribed.

So it was no surprise that Miller attracted thousands of followers--Millerites they were called. There, elsewhere in America, and even in Europe. So devoted were they that when he narrowed his prediction to October 22nd or 23rd for the actual date for Christ's return, even though Jesus had failed to appear on a number of other dates Miller had identified, many gave up all their worldly possessions and moved to high ground so they could witness directly the impending celestial event.

Well, here we are 165 years later, and we’re still waiting.

But, thanks to modern science, we now have a more precise and reliable date—the world as we know it will end in 7.59 billion years.

Not that those who have identified this date are saying that this will be when the Miller-predicted Advent will occur, albeit a little behind schedule. No, scientists aren’t in the prophecy game. This, they have discerned, is when the earth will fall into the exploding sun and be incinerated. Our planet, their observations reveal, will be pulled from its orbit and plunge into the sun’s inferno.

Lest this lulls you into feeling that a date so far in the future leaves you with plenty of time to schedule your engagement party; ask your boss for a raise; finally have your apartment painted; or, in my case, make an appointment to have hearing aides fitted, think again. Because though the earth’s final destiny is to play out in that distant future, other things will happen sooner which will make life here much less pleasant. In fact intolerable. Actually, impossible.

That is because only one billion years from now, these same scientists say, our sun will be 10 percent brighter and hotter than it is at present and this will mean, among other catastrophic things, that our oceans will vaporize. Talk about Global Warming!

Not that it will matter to any of us after the Atlantic Ocean become in effect a lot of superheated steam, but those of you who remain curious in spite of that, 4.5 billion years after our oceans boil away, the sun will burn up its last hydrogen fuel and rapidly enter its final throes—our sun, like many others of its kind in the solar system, will become a Red Giant. (See linked “Science Times” article.)

This will turn out to be a good story for the planets out there beyond Neptune. Those frozen far away places will experience a relatively short-term springtime. Think, therefore, about Spring Break not in Fort Lauderdale but, say, on Pluto. It’s always good to plan ahead.