Starting off the Year with the End: 10 Doomsday Theories Still to Come
From the beginning of time, many societies around the world have created their own theories for the destruction of the world or the annihilation of humankind. Some theories come from supernatural forces casting judgment while others come from scientific speculations. Even though multiple doomsdays have passed and been proven wrong, there are many others still up for grabs in the future.
SCIENTIFIC DOOMSDAYS
Earth’s Final Sunset –
Every star in the universe has a live span where the star will go through six stages of existence, branching off into three paths depending on the size and mass. The sun, an average sized star, was formed in a stellar nebula and millions of years will go by before the star becomes a red giant. At this point the star deconstructs itself into a planetary nebula, compressing into a white dwarf, and finally ending as a black dwarf.
The final sunset is a doomsday where the sun expands continuously for 7.6 billion years until it engulfs the Milky Way galaxy. Expansion will have many effects on the Earth before it is completely eradicated. The first event to happen would be the rising temperature of the Earth’s surface temperature. After this, oceans will completely evaporate causing the atmosphere to have an abundance of water vapor. Eventually, most of the atmosphere will be overtaken by carbon dioxide and other toxic greenhouse gasses, until the Earth’s atmosphere becomes too hot to be inhabitable by any living organism. With no life present, the Earth will be in a state of ever growing heat until it is ultimately destroyed in approximately five billion years.
Heat Death –
The end of the entire universe is what is called the Heat Death. This theory comes from the basic laws of thermodynamics where energy cannot be created or destroyed, showing how there is a limited amount of energy able to be used and morphed in the entirety of all universes. It is called Heat Death because all energy used turns into heat energy. As this process continues, the universes will eventually reach a state of perfect equilibrium and their temperatures will be at absolute zero.
No need to worry about the entire existence of life ceasing to be though, because this doomsday is predicted to occur in ten to the power of 100 years later (one with 100 zeroes accompanying it). While all life will be completely obliterated, it will not be any time in the near or even far future. The Milky Way and Earth still have millions of years left if doomsday comes from Heat Death.
Rogue Black Holes –
Black holes are dense points of energy in space where objects sucked in are theorized to be condensed by massive amounts of force. When stars collapse at the end of their life cycles, there is a possibility that the left over energy will create black holes. These space phenomena cannot be studied closely by any means for scientists of today but there are many theories pertaining to them. The theories range from black holes being dark matter to wormholes going through the dimensional void.
Hundreds of rogue black holes hide in the blackness of space and since scientists recently discovering some of them in the Milky Way, they are closer than first speculated. Without being able to predict where black holes are located, there is no standard guideline to Earth’s destruction. If it were to happen, Earth would be ripped apart and condensed to varying degrees depending on the strength of the black hole. This doomsday is ever present, with no set time and no predictable measurement of how close or how far away it is.
Galactic Cannibalism –
Literal star wars begin when two galaxies are too close together and start to fight one another for the most amount of cosmic energy. Galactic cannibalism leaves the galaxies in a chaotic state of possibilities depending on the way in which the collision happens. If both galaxies are moving fast then the battle will result in random streaks of matter, misshapen stars, and destroyed galaxies. If only one of the galaxies are fast moving, then literal holes can be punctured through the slower galaxy. The other possibility for these star wars is galactic merging where the bigger galaxy engulfs the smaller, making it cannibalistic.
The Milky Way has been able to be the stronger one of the galaxies nearby and has not yet been dwarfed by any other galaxies within its range. Rather, the Milky Way seems to have actually cannibalized parts of the universe such as the Sagittarius Stream. This does not mean that the Milky Way is in any way safe from other galaxies around it. Over millions of years, though with no set date, galaxies will collide and try to absorb one another. Unfortunately, if any larger galaxy comes into contact with the Milky Way, our galaxy will be the victim of galactic cannibalism…goodbye Earth.
False Vacuum –
The infinite universe has fluctuating energy levels, varying from ‘bubbles’ of low energy that are very thinned out to extremely dense pockets that can collapse at any moment. The vacuum metastability event is a complete resetting of the universe when there are enough e
nergy pockets and time. ‘Bubbles’ of the low energy will be the catalyst for the universe to become a reverse vacuum where our universe will invert and expand at light speed. Instant universal desolation occurs with all life destroyed, and following this, a new universe is created and becomes extremely unstable, once again collapsing. At this point, it is an endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction of the universe until the energy runs out.
Theorists have predicted enough high energy concentrations or random tunneling for a false vacuum to possibly form in the year 2150. The fragile mechanics of quantum particles hold the universe on a 50/50 chance of either complete stability or complete annihilation. There is literally only a century left before there is a possibility of the entire universe topples itself through universal instability.
Asteroid Impact –
At the beginning of January 2015, an asteroid passed Earth by approximately 750,000 miles. Most asteroids and meteors bypass Earth will no issues, and thankfully, most of them have not been life threatening impacts. Instances such as the flash impact in Russia and the impact marks across both the moon and sections of the Earth show some of the damages that can be done. While other planets have common experience with outer atmospheric collisions, most impacts do not occur on Earth because the Earth’s atmosphere incinerates most fast-travelling space debris before it touches the ground.
The next asteroid to come near earth will be in 2027 and it’s a HUGE one. Asteroid 1999 AN10 ranges from 800 to 1800 meters in diameter. The chance of this asteroid hitting the Earth is 1 out of 10 million, so there is no need to quake in fear. Unfortunately, another is coming Earth’s way around 2032 and its chances are not in the planet’s favor. Predicted to have a 1 in 63000 chance of impact, complete confirmation of time and landing may arrive in 2028. The asteroid, TV135, will pack a force equivalent to 2500 megatons of TNT or a power and explosion 50 times more powerful than the atomic bomb.
RELIGIOUS DOOMSDAYS
Armageddon –
In the biblical texts, Armageddon comes from the book of Revelations, which continuously forewarns the prophecy of the end of the world. It is one of the final battles between God and Satan, the war is being fought by humans and monsters alike. Humans will have to choose either the side of good or evil during this time, cementing their place when the war ends. The time of calamity and the destruction of humankind will come in phases, with the presents of God and the anti-Christ. Before God opens the heavens to rain fire and light across the barren wastelands, the anti-Christ will use this time in show his power in eight events: the four beasts of the sea, the lion, the bear, four beasts of the sea, a lion, a bear, a leopard, a creature with ten horns, a mouth that speaks only to trick others, a war with the Saints, and power over the unsaved.
A bloody and monstrous battle of the saved, unsaved, demons, angels, and the powerhouses of good and evil themselves seems like a horrible and chaotic end for the human race. Babylonian times, with unimaginable monster and creatures roaming, will once again reign over the Earth until Armageddon is finished and all the souls have their eternal place in the afterlife.
The Hebrew Time Clock –
The Hebrew Calendar predicts the end of time after 6000 years, or Year 2240 AD, where the Earth will go through major turmoil with the reappearance of Christ. All 6000 years before this moment are grouped together in three distinct 2000 year ages: the Age of Desolation, the Age of Instruction, and the Age of the Messiah. The first age deals with the beginning of God’s creation and the fall of the angels. The second age begins right at the start of Moses and the Ten Commandments. The final encompasses Jesus’s birth to year 6000. In this age, the millennia will be filled with war and is called the Last Days. All of the biblical prophecies take place in this time period, where the saved are whisked away to heaven while those remaining on Earth have heaven’s judgment cast upon them.
There is an upside to the Hebrew doomsday, with everything not just ending with destruction and war. After the millennia finishes and year 7000 begins, it becomes an age of peace and resurrections. It is a time of immortality, the Age of Life, and is the final years given on the Hebrew Time clock calendar.
Qur’an Numerology –
Math is a doomsday in itself, but in the Qur’an, it takes a more literal approach with the mathematical formula giving the final days of existence through numerology. Along with the numbers, the destruction of the Earth also comes in a variety of signs and stages, much like Armageddon. The signs go as followed: the splitting of the moon, Qur’an’s 19-based mathematical code, the creature, the appearance of a messenger of God, the smoke, and Gog and Magog, beings originating from Babylonian times.
Every verse and sequence of lettering is important to the Qur’an prediction of the end, which numbers being a prophetical symbol. The exact time of the Qur’an Code is said to in the year 2280. By this time Allah will appear, and like the book of Revelations, war and destruction will befall the Earth.
Kali Yuga –
All the way back to the beginning of time, the Yuga cycle timeline is separated into four distinct ages of the Sanskrit calendar for the end of time. Each age last a little bit less each time and are represented by either dawn or twilight. The first age is Satya Yuga (Golden Age) and was a time for self-realization, goodness, and longevity in life. Following that, Treta Yuga (Silver Age) is a time of self-realization, sacrifice, and a decrease in godly powers by one-fourth. The third age is Dvapara Yuga (Bronze Age) continuously decreases all self-realization and nothing can be done without prayer to temples. By this time, humankind only possesses half of their innate abilities.
As of right now, the Earth is in the final age, the Kali Yuga (Iron Age), or the age of darkness. Morality is at the all-time low in this stage and mankind is slowly turning into wickedness and destruction. It is a dark time with little-to-no more goodness left and the Earth is completely covered in diseases, anger, and natural disasters. If the universe is indeed in this time period of the Yuga life cycle then there is no hope left and the beginning and end is shrouded in death and mystery. Just like most of old religious prophecies, this doomsday definitely has no happy ending or quick annihilation.
