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http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gravity-05h.html
only a billion years from now is not that long a time.
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http://www.spacedaily.com/news/gravity- … l]Hundreds of millions of stars and billions upon billions of planets basically ripped apart by heat, gravity and enormous shockwaves of turbulence.
That is an understatement. At some future date, Belsole explained, several billion years from now, the local group of galaxies containing the Milky Way will be torn apart by a merger with the nearby Virgo cluster.
Even hiding several miles below the surface, on Mars, may be unsafe.
We cannot hide, but how can we run somewhere to escape ?
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one way is the dark energy could change the equations a bit on how much we fall into this virgo supercluster;
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there is another way. aliens with lasers on their heads could storm earth and try to steal resources. they might want samples of humans. this is a serious threat. watch out.
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We know little of what is relatively close to us. A few large objects have been detected in the Kuiper belt; and the first we see of a comet is the tail.
Add the possibility of a http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991214.html]gas cloud coming between Earth and the Sun.
Dark matter, dark energy, what other lurks, unseen, ready to destroy ?
Interstellar or intergalactic objects will have very high energy of motion.
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Direct to Mars, colonizing, would give humans a better chance,
to adapt and escape disaster.
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Even Mars wouldn't save us from some of the things you mention. It's a start obviously, but to really ensure the survival of the human species we need to settle in a large number of solar systems besides this one. After all, even if nothing else happens the sun won't last forever.
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
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Adapting to underground living, up to several kilometers underground, having backup alternate energy supply, moderate distance, such as Mars, may be the best we can do in the near future.
If the Sun was blocked for a century by a gas cloud, freezing everything, or a nearby stellar explosion frying planetary surfaces, cave dwellers might be able to survive.
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Development of superhuman intelligence could lead to the mastery of the elements needed to escape extinction. However no amount of system colonization or technological advancement can reverse the buildup of entropy and the eventual death of the universe and humanity as we know it.
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