Timeline for Could a disaster kill all (human) life on Earth but leave astronauts in low orbit alive long enough to return?
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 11:03 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Aug 18, 2015 at 18:23 | history | edited | Tim B | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 18, 2015 at 18:22 | comment | added | Tim B | @gerrit Yes. That's why I said they will be fine until that happens... | |
| Aug 18, 2015 at 17:42 | comment | added | gerrit | If Fenrir eats the Sun, the astronauts will be out of power and die. | |
| S Oct 18, 2014 at 15:44 | history | suggested | unor | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 18, 2014 at 15:14 | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Oct 18, 2014 at 9:40 | comment | added | Tim B | @J.Musser It would need a change in the way they work to get the toxins airborn but I was thinking something like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algal_bloom#Harmful_algal_blooms scaled up to cover the entire ocean and maybe freshwater too. | |
| Oct 18, 2014 at 1:42 | comment | added | user487 | @Shokhet from Bio.SE: How long does the Ebola virus remain infectious on contaminated items or surfaces? | |
| Oct 17, 2014 at 23:50 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | @TimB You need a strike big enough to get the boomers and people in deep mine shafts. That's not merely tidal waves. I'm talking about a strike that boils off at least some hundreds of feet of the ocean, not merely tidal waves. Ejecta will destroy anything in a low orbit. | |
| Oct 17, 2014 at 21:43 | comment | added | J. Musser | What Algae has the potential to do what was described in the 5th item in your bulleted list? | |
| Oct 17, 2014 at 11:44 | comment | added | Tim B | @jwenting Hence why I said it would need to strike in the right place. For example a polar strike or a correctly timed equatorial one would miss the space station entirely. | |
| Oct 17, 2014 at 11:35 | comment | added | jwenting | @TimB a strike big enough to meet Loren's criteria would generate enough ejecta erupting from both sides of the planet that the ISS would be hit by a cosmic shotgun blast of epic proportions. Not survivable. | |
| Oct 17, 2014 at 5:56 | comment | added | Tim B | @LorenPechtel The ISS would only be knocked out of the sky if it was hit by flying debris. If the meteor strike happened in the correct part of the planet that wouldn't happen. As for the severity of the catastrophe - adjust the size of the asteroid accordingly. Tidal waves and massive earthquakes will make the sea a hard place to survive too. | |
| Oct 16, 2014 at 23:40 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | @TimB Huh? A powerful enough strike will raise the temperature of the whole biosphere to unsurvivable levels. That's the only thing that would ensure a kill against those that are well dug in by purpose or by accident (ie, boomers at sea). It hasn't happened since the late heavy bombardment but think of the Theia strike. There's also the little detail that the ISS would be knocked out of the sky by a strike much less than needed to wipe humanity. | |
| Oct 16, 2014 at 18:37 | comment | added | Twelfth | I like your ideas @TimB, so +1 - but as you point out, I don't see any of these events being 100% human extinction an under the time limit of the survivability of astronauts on the ISS. | |
| Oct 16, 2014 at 8:27 | comment | added | Tim B | You are right though that taking out absolutely everyone is very hard, I already mentioned submarine crews as just one example. | |
| Oct 16, 2014 at 8:26 | comment | added | Tim B | @LorenPechtel I think you underestimate the resilience of life. A strike strong enough to wipe out humanity would not need to kill every plant, every seed, every small burrowing animal on the far side of the globe, etc. Life would start to re-emerge and take over again fairly quickly from whatever small patches did survive. | |
| Oct 16, 2014 at 5:55 | comment | added | Loren Pechtel | I will have to disagree on asteroids. A strike powerful enough to get a 100% kill will not leave a biosphere, period. Anything that leaves a functional biosphere will not take out humanity in the requisite timeframe. There will be survivalists holed up with supplies. | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 19:29 | comment | added | Tim B | @Nerrolken You should see the follow on questions it spawned both here and in chat :) | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 19:18 | comment | added | Nerrolken | I don't know what I'm more charmed by, the addition of Ragnarok among those options, or the fact that others have commented with critiques of it as a practical option. | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 17:25 | comment | added | Tim B | @Shokhet That would depend on the pathogens so unfortunately I can't give a definitive answer. Some can't survive long outside a host, others can lie dormant for years. The good news though means anyone using the idea can choose whatever time they need :) | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 16:46 | comment | added | Shokhet | +1. Was about to suggest Ebola......but you beat me to it. How long might it take for the pathogens (Ebola, "Plague") to die out? | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 14:30 | comment | added | Taemyr | Fenrir eats the sun quite early in Ragnarok. OTOH SOl will have a daughter that continues in her mothers path before this happens. | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 13:45 | comment | added | Nicholas | There are a lot of suggestions here, but I'm not sure if any of them seem viable. An asteroid strike, if violent enough to end humanity, would have effects lingering for (likely) centuries. And how could the planet recover from the nasty chemicals of the toxic bloom in so little time? Plague with 100% mortality, that is highly selective to humans and cannot survive outside of a living host, seems the only viable one of the group. I'm not sure how this could possibly evolve, though, unless it's some sort of superweapon gone rogue. | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 13:17 | history | edited | Tim B | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 15, 2014 at 12:52 | comment | added | Danny Reagan | That whole "sun eating" bit from Ragnarok... That might linger a bit past 8 months. | |
| Oct 15, 2014 at 12:50 | history | edited | Tim B | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 15, 2014 at 12:45 | history | answered | Tim B | CC BY-SA 3.0 |