According to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the expansion of the Sun would ultimately wipe out all living on Earth.
The bleak prognosis came in response to a debate on major extinction events, of which there have been five on the globe so far, the most famous of which was when a massive asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Because of the impact and its after-effects, 76 percent of the world’s species were wiped off.
According to the Express, scientists have identified evidence that the sixth major extinction event is underway, based on research on Earth’s biodiversity loss.
“Unless mankind creates life multi-planetary, there is a 100% likelihood of all species extinction due to solar expansion,” Musk tweeted.
While the Sun is anticipated to grow and swallow the Earth, destroying everything in its path, this is unlikely to happen for another billion years.
Mr. Musk previously indicated that he wants to ensure that mankind could depart the planet before “Earth becomes too hot for life in around 500 million years.”
With a net worth of more than $270 billion, the world’s wealthiest man has made it his goal to turn mankind into a multi-planetary species by establishing a colony on Mars, which he thinks SpaceX will be able to conduct a crewed journey there in 2026.
The Starship rocket, which will be able to transport humans to Mars, is being built by SpaceX’s billionaire creator Elon Musk. By 2050, he plans to colonize the inhospitable planet and build towns amid its craters thanks to the Starship project.
SpaceX has already landed a multi-million-dollar contract with Nasa as a result of its efforts. By 2024, Elon Musk’s aerospace business hopes to conduct unmanned flights to Mars.
According to SpaceX’s Starships user handbook, the business will need to manufacture up to 100 rockets each year to achieve its goals.
Each one will be able to accommodate 100 crew members and will have “private cabins, huge communal rooms, centralized storage, solar storm shelters, and a viewing gallery,” according to the press release.
While worldwide extinction due to an erupting Sun may be millennia away, scientists are presently warning of large-scale species extinction owing to climate change induced by human activities.
“Drastically increased rates of species extinctions and declining abundances of many animal and plant populations are well documented,” said Robert Cowie, research professor at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa Pacific Biosciences Research Center in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).