1. Meteorite
In recent geological history, Earth has been hit by several large asteroids. Dinosaurs are most likely to have been killed by an asteroid 65 million years ago. If one hit Earth, it is more than linkely that Eall humanity would die. For humanity to be completely destroyed, a meteor would have to be 1 km in diameter–on average, a 1 km meteor hits Earth once every 500,000 years.
2. Pandemic
Image source - Wikipedia
If HIV mutated to become as transmissible as the common cold everyone could be infected and die. It might not even be naturally mutated–biological warfare is becoming more advanced. In January 2009, an Al-Qaeda faction wiped themselves out when they were developing a biological plague.
3. Supervolcanoes
A supervolcano can release more than 240 cubic miles of ash and lava into the sky, millions of times more than a normal volcano. This may have happened in the past, decimating humanity to a handful of survivors.
4. Robots
This isn’t sci-fi. As learning computers become superintelligent, they could become to out-compete humans. As soon as we design a computer smarter than us, that computer could design one smarter than itself, and so on, resulting in a machine that could be capable of manipulating all of humanity. Robots are already able to find power sources for themselves, and identify and attack people armed with weapons.
5. Grey goo
- Image source - theavclub.tv
The end of the world where everything is consumed by molecular nanotechnology that can self-replicate is known as ecophagy (eating the environment). Grey goo are hypothetical molecular nanobots, which can self duplicate and consume. If it took a thousand seconds to duplicate, the nanobots would outweigh the entire Earth in less than 2 days.
6. Verneshot
Image source - apocalypse-soon.com
The heat and build-up of carbon dioxide underneath the outermost shell of Earth could powerfully launch a column of crust and mantle into the stratosphere. It would then shower down all over Earth, causing massive damage where it landed. There have been numerous smaller verneshots in recent times, and some scientists believe that it has been responsible for past extinctions.
7. Sun
Image source - Wikipedia
The Sun is rising in its luminosity, meaning that Earth is getting hotter. Slowly, certain minerals will be weathered more rapidly, resulting in less CO2. No CO2 means no plants, resulting in a collapse of the ecosystem.
8. Heat death
Image source - davestravelcorner.com
The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy tends to increase in an isolated system. As energy becomes increasingly evenly spread in our universe, we will lose some of the energy as it is being transferred. Thus, heat death refers to the movement of energy eventually running out completely–there will be no energy that can sustain life.
9. Snowball Earth
Image source - cosmology.net
It is commonly accepted in the geological community that Earth was frozen about 650 million years ago. This can be caused again by an ice age, which can be caused as greenhouse gas levels drop.
10. Aliens!
Image source - arealiensreal.org
Professional researchers from SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have seriously done work on the possibility of an alien invasion. They concluded that it was extremely unlikely, but you never know.
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