Discover Magazine: January/ February 2022
Asteroid strikes, supernova blasts and other calamities that could take out humanity
Life is resilient
The first living things on Earth appeared as far back as 4 billion years ago, according to some scientists. Throughout Earth’s history, it’s seen all manner of cataclysms. These disparate doomsdays have killed countless like-forms. And at times, those mass extinctions have even eliminated most species on Earth.
Yet life has always rebounded. New species emerge. The cycle repeats.
So, what would it take to kill off
life in full? Here are just a few possible doomsday events that could
permanently extinguish all life on Earth- and the last one is likely
unavoidable.
