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Stephen Hawking warns that humans must find and colonize another planet within the next century to avoid extinction due to threats such as climate change, pandemics, asteroid strikes, population growth, and artificial intelligence. Some experts disagree with his timeline. Catastrophic events that could occur include asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts, and supervolcano eruptions.
This summer, renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking will release a new BBC documentary titled Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth, and will undertake a series of public lectures. In the documentary, Hawking will warn that within the next century, humans must find another planet capable of supporting life and colonize it, or risk extinction. According to Hawking, the Earth is set to become uninhabitable in the not-so-distant future, due to the threats of climate change, deadly pandemics, asteroid strikes, rampant population growth, or even artificial intelligence. However, not everyone agrees that our planet is so imminently doomed: other experts have assessed Hawking’s new timeline as overly pessimistic.
Catastrophic events that could occur:
Scientists say the likelihood of Earth being hit by a deadly asteroid is small. However, the impact of an asteroid with a diameter of one kilometer (6 miles) could fill the atmosphere with debris and block out the Sun for months.
Astronomers have seen powerful gamma-ray bursts in distant galaxies, creating black holes and generating energy equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs.
The largest supervolcano in the world is located under Yellowstone National Park. An explosion, while unlikely, could be 10,000 times more powerful than the eruption of Mount St. Helena in 1980.
