Earth’s Atoms Could Seed Future Worlds After Sun’s Death, but Odds of New Planets Stay Unclear
Updated
Updated · New Scientist · Jul 1
Earth’s Atoms Could Seed Future Worlds After Sun’s Death, but Odds of New Planets Stay Unclear
1 articles · Updated · New Scientist · Jul 1
Summary
Clémence Fontanive said atoms from Earth—including landfill and buried nuclear waste—could eventually be recycled into interstellar clouds, stars or planets after the sun dies.
Earth’s exact fate remains uncertain because astronomers still do not know whether the expanding sun will engulf the planet or whether Earth may narrowly avoid being swallowed.
That pathway matters because material from the dying sun may simply disperse through space; Fontanive said there is little evidence that new planetary systems commonly form around stellar remnants.
Nuclear waste is unlikely to have any special biological role in that distant future, since life relies mainly on lighter elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.