It appears from the article that what we need to do (by "we" I mean our distant ancestors) is construct some kind of orbiting sun screens to deflect some of the excess heat from the sun. That ought to keep the planet habital for a billion or so years longer. Once the sun goes red giant we might need to move the earth out to a more distant orbit using close passes by a big asteroid to gradually perturb it's orbit. Assuming that we can find a way to shield it from the effects of the sun going nova (bigger sun screens maybe?), we can then use the same method to move the orbit closer as the sun shrinks down to white dwarf status. Since white dwarfs cool very slowly, this should provide habitability for several billion years more. Phosphates and water can be replenished by mining comets and maybe Mars (I assume there are phosphates on Mars). So it's really just an engineering problem. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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When in doubt, reverse the polarity.

Opps. This was supposed to be a reply to another thread. Dhooo!

I just noticed that! It should have been in The Earth's Future, right?

So, I guess I can use this thread to ask about something almost unrelated: your use of the word ancestor. I'd guess you meant descendent? Or did you mean that my great grandfather should have had his act together, and I wouldn't be spending so much on SPF40?

The only reason that I picked up on this is because I read the same thing somewhere else last night. In the book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, p.332, it says "Lord Voldemort--who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar..."

Is there another meaning of ancestor that I am unaware of?

Dhooo again! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]