Timeline of the far future
The ultimate fate of our universe may be the heat death of the universe or the big rip. Before that happens, it is possible to predict that the following will happen.
Some types of science can say what could happen far into the future. Before we go further, it is worth noting that our local group of galaxies are bound by gravitation, and its changes and aging can be discussed separate from the rest of the universe.
For example, astrophysics can say how planets and stars form, affect each other, and die; particle physics can say how atoms and other matter act over time; evolutionary biology can allow us to see how living things change over time; and plate tectonics can say how continents shift over time. By observing the past and present, astrophysicists, particle physicists, evolutionary biologists and geologists can make guesses about what might happen in the future.
The second law of thermodynamics is important to predictions about the future of Earth, of the Solar System, and the future of the expanding universe. The second law of thermodynamics says that entropy is always happening. That means that the universe is slowly running out of the kind of energy that can do work. For example, stars will eventually run out of hydrogen fuel and burn out.
Key
Earth, the Solar System and the universe
Erosion is when wind, water or other things make a rock or mountain shrink by breaking of tiny pieces of it off over time.
Humanity
Spacecraft and space exploration
As of 2020, five machines that travel through outer space are moving toward the edge of the solar system: Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and New Horizons. They will travel into interstellar space. So long as they do not crash into anything, these machines should persist indefinitely.
Technological projects and time capsules
A time capsule is a box or other container that is buried or hidden on purpose and scheduled to be opened many years later. People place things inside the time capsule so people in the future will find them. For example, someone might place a game, tool, toy, journal, magazine or book inside a time capsule so people in the future would see how the people who buried the time capsule lived, played and worked and what they liked to read.
Human constructs
Nuclear power
Related pages
Orders of magnitude (time) Ultimate fate of the universe
Notes
References
Future