10 ways the universe could destroy us at any moment

10. Rogue planet

They're planets that have for one reason or another broken free of their original orbit without a star
to rotate around these planets are left to roam through space causing chaos. how common is this?
Well astronomers believe that in our galaxy rogue planets may outnumber stars one hundred
thousand to one. Considering there's 400 billion stars in the milky way. We're talking about a lot of
planets hurtling around. You don't have to be a genius to spot the problem here. Colliding with one
of these careening planets would likely wipe out humanity and crack the earth to pieces. Though
we’d probably see it coming, the speed and size of a planet would be impossible to stop. Could this
ever happen to us?

Well, it a team at NASA believes that the current earth was formed by two rogue planets colliding
into each other. The two planets “earth and Theia” smashed together, fusing into one planet, with a
small break-off part becoming the Moon.

9. Galactic cannibalism

Galactic cannibalism isn't just the most metal band name over. It's also a real phenomenon and one
that could destroy the earth along with most of the milky way. When the science difference between
two neighbouring galaxies becomes too extreme,

the pressure caused by the gravity imbalance forces the smaller one to collapse into the larger one.
In other words the big universe swallows the little one. This is probably a good time to point out that
the galaxy nearest towards the andromeda galaxy is way bigger than the milky way. Not only that
but andromeda is well known for routinely snacking on nearby galaxies. If the milky way is consumed
the shift in gravity would likely throw the earth out of the suns orbit without the star's heat we'd
quickly freeze to death. With the earth reaching -70 degree Celsius within a week.

8.black holes

black holes have appeared in more sci-fi films than killer robots and sexy aliens. And honestly, it's
not hard to see why? Black holes are arguably the most powerful things in the universe. Once
beyond a black hole's event horizon nothing can escape its gravitational pull, not even light. If the
earth was unlucky enough to fall into one the localized bending of space would stretch us thinner
and thinner until our atoms ripped apart. It's a process physicists have genuinely called
“spaghettification”. The good news is that the nearest black hole we know about is about 27 000
lights away.

But it's worth noting that a there may be other nearer black holes. Because it's really hard to spot a
random black circle in the middle of the blackness of the space and be some black holes can move.
In 2017, NASA spotted a supermassive black hole hurtling through a far-off galaxy at 8 million
kilometres per hour. The space organization believes that, it was pushed out of its original orbit by
gravitational waves and while that hole will never be a threat to us. It's not exactly comforting to
know that sometimes inescapable planet-eating sinkholes go walkabout.

7. Gamma ray Burst

So black holes are pretty deadly once they exist. But even their birth could destroy our entire planet
in an instant. Black holes are formed when a star dies and goes supernova. When that
transformation happens an almost unimaginable amount of energy is released in two giant heat
beams. These beams are called “gamma-ray bursts”. And each one has as much energy as our sun
will release in a billion years. obviously being in the path of one of these bursts is bad news. If one
such beam shot through the earth the entire planet would be flash fried. Burning almost all life on its
death within seconds of the initial blast. In fact, some researchers believe that a gamma-ray burst
was responsible for the mass extinction that took place on our that extinction that took place 450
million years ago. That extinction wiped out around 85 of life on earth completely changing the
course of history. One of these explosions happens in the universe every day. But luckily, we don't
know of any happening within our galaxy. Less luckily though, if even one of the 400 billion stars in
the milky way did release a gamma ray bust every planet in the galaxy would be torched.

6. Meteorite impact

No doubt you know about the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs after all anything that can kill
an entire world of giant lizard monsters tends to capture the imagination. But that was far from the
first space rock to come carinii into the Earth. Between 4 billion years BCE and 3 billion years BCE our
planet was pelted with 5000 meteorites a day. One meteorite strike about 3.26 billion years ago was
so powerful, that scientists think the force of the impact caused the earth to shake for half an hour.
The energy released from the collision also rose the earth's air temperature to 480°C and caused the
oceans to boil. Needless to say a meteorite powerful enough to fry our seats and turn the air into an
oven would be bad news to humans. But even smaller contacts could spell the end of life on earth. In
1908, the impact of a comet only 60m wide was powerful enough to rip 2000 square kilometre of
forest out of the ground. We know that an asteroid capable of 100 times the force of the Hiroshima
atom bomb is headed to earth for 2030. But we may be wiped out before that. A NASA scientist has
warned us that humanity is completely unprepared for a surprise asteroid strike. With even several
months warning not being enough time to effectively stop a meteorite.

5. Cosmic Radiation

As if the fact space routinely chucked giant boulders at us wasn't enough, the universe is also
constantly trying to irradiate us. Although we don't notice it the earth is constantly being bathed in
radiation from space. Fortunately, our planet has a built-in defence system against this non-stop
cosmic Chernobyl. The ozone layer yep that same ozone layer we've been punching holes in for
decades is our one and only defence against an onslaught of radioactive flooding our atmosphere. If
the ozone layer grows too thin scientists predict cases of cancer, brain damage and radiation
sickness to skyrocket. Facing cosmic radiation without an ozone layer is so dangerous. It may prevent
us going to Mars. As the astronauts would be exposed to enough radiation to give them early
Alzheimer’s after only six weeks. Were the ozone layer to be completely depleted staying outside for
five minutes would be enough to give anyone skin cancer. The brightness of the sun would cause
widespread blindness and we'd all start dying from radiation poisoning. Not a great way for the
human race to end.
4. coronal mass ejection

In 1859 a brief white light flashed across the sky, seconds later telegraph stations all over europe
and north America stopped working. We now know that this bizarre sky flash and sudden telegram
shutdown was caused by coronal mass ejection. A sudden release of energy on the surface of the
sun. When these solar flares are large enough to reach earth they mess with our technology and
wreak havoc on humanity. If the 1859 flare had occurred today, things would have been a lot worse.
All electrical items like lighting, telephones and computers would stop working, traffic lights would
fail, causing car crashes across the world. Anywhere with electrically controlled water supplies would
no longer have running water or sanitation. Cities would be plunged into darkness and rioting would
almost certainly break out globally. The technological blackout would take years to reverse and
that's if society managed to keep itself together and not turn into a mad max style dystopia. We
almost faced this disaster in 2012, when a solar flare narrowly missed our planet. Had it happened a
week earlier, we'd have been hit and sent back to the stone age. Experts estimate the technological
shutdown damage would have taken 2.6 trillion dollars and 10 years to fix. But don't relax just yet
scientists put the odds of a solar flare hitting us within a next decade as high as 12 percent.

3. vacuum testability event

theoretical quantum physics may not seem as exciting as colliding planets or world guzzling black
holes. But by the end of this entry, you'll stop associating quantum physics with falling asleep in
science classes, and start associating it with a terrifying universe ending apocalypse. The false
vacuum theory takes the well-established idea that quantum particles are trying to exist in the a
lowest possible energy state; a vacuum it then posits that the universe, that place we all live is not at
a vacuum state but is actually a false vacuum. This would mean that at any moment a section of the
universe would collapse into a vacuum, with this vacuum spreading at the speed of light. Earth along
with all life everywhere would be enveloped into a vacuum. Not only would there be nothing we
could do to stop the collapse of the universe. But we probably wouldn't even see it coming. On top
of that, the entire universe would be gone, and no life as we currently understand it, could ever exist
again. So, there you have it quantum physics isn't boring just piss your pants terrifying.

2. hyper velocity stars

If you thought rogue planets were bad, well you're right. But they're nothing compared to hyper
velocity stars. You see planets aren't the only things that can get pulled out of orbit. Stars can also
end up rocketing through space, burning up everything in their path as they do. Traveling at 4000
kilometres per second and being, you know, giant balls of hellfire, there's really no way to stop a
hyper velocity star. In fact, a freewheeling star, the size of the sun would only have to come within
148 million kilometres of earth to burn us all to death.
you'd think one of the very few plus sides of being in the path of a giant vall of fire is that it'd be easy
to spot. But it turns out that even seeing these things coming is harder than you'd thin. Though
scientists estimate that there are 1000 hypervelocity stars shooting through our galaxy. We've only
ever been able to find 16.

1. Magnetars

you know something is pretty deadly when it could wipe us out without even being in the same
Galaxy. This ball of space light is a magnetar a type of dead neutron star that's prone to starquakes.
Which are basically like earthquakes except they happen on a star and cause a huge wave of gamma
rays and X rays to be released. These waves travel a long way. In 1979 the Ussr and Nasa both
reported that their satellites around earth had been overwhelmed by a sudden wave of gamma
energy. Decades later, scientists worked out that this blast came from a magnetar 1,65,000 light
years despite the distance the surge was still 100 times more Powerful than any gamma ray burst
ever detected. In 2004, a starquake on a magnetar 50,000 light years away dosed us with enough
gamma energy to temporarily change our atmosphere, causing the ionosphere at the top of our sky
to briefly swell up. A similar blast would only have to be within 10 light years of earth to strip away
the ozone layer, leaving us to be irradiated by space and cooked by the sun. so that was 10 ways the
universe could destroy us at any moment.