What if? Well, that is not a question; well, actually it is but that is not the point! That is the name of a very popular book currently at its 10th edition with updates every year written by Randall Munroe!
The book seeks to answer questions which may be considered absurd or silly or may even initiate a psychiatric evaluation!
Now although the questions may be absurd, the author has made every possible attempt to answer the questions as scientifically as possible!
Growing up you might have asked questions to your parents like where does the rain come from or why it becomes dark in the night or where does the sun disappear!
And many times your elders like your parents or your grandparents would either tell you a fact which may seem scientific or some times simply give you an answer so that you would stop annoying them!
I have had answers like rain comes when someone opens the taps in the sky!
Of course when you were young (er!); you used to take the answers as they were given and even narrate the same to your friend with so much confidence that even Newton would be proud!
You would also think that the elders are so wise! Till you grow up and find the correct answer! What you think after that is up to your maturity!
With the advent of Mr Google and the net; children do not waste time asking such questions to you! Even if they do ask, more often than not, rest assured they would counter check your answer so do not give the ‘tap in the sky’ answers!
Luckily though there is so much information on the net that your role of giving a specific answer is still valid!
With that in mind; Have you ever wondered that well, for now the sun is so hot! But how long would it take for it to cool down so much that you could literally touch it!? If you were alive of course!
The answer in the book was there as an answer to another question and unfortunately is not very comforting!
Lets see what is the timeline of what is ‘theoretically’ (because this is only a theory! No one is going to be there to validate it you see! Or at least you and me may not be there to confirm the findings!)
Now in about 10 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy will have merged with the Milky Way. The Sun will be gone and its debris will be spread across new star systems but still the parts would be hot!
100 billion years in the future: The accelerating expansion of the universe is now carrying other galaxies away from us so fast that their light becomes too stretched out for us to detect, rendering the universe outside our galaxy effectively invisible! Now the sun is cooling but still not very cool! Literally!
Finally at about 1 trillion years from now, the long-lived white dwarf stars start to burn out! The good news though is that the remnant of the sun cools to the point where you could finally touch it! It may still be a little warm though!
Oh yeah I know you do not like cliffhangers! So in around 1000 trillion years from now, any remaining planets orbiting the remnant of the Sun will have been ejected into the void or crashed into it! The stars are dark and the sky is empty! You may of course get to say, “I told you so!”
You can tell that or maybe sing! Though it may not be like the sweet voice of Hariharan!
Shubh Ratri!
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