A collision between two large, rocky bodies in space can be catastrophic for one or both of them. This has happened to Earth before, and will no doubt happen again. But the end of the Earth? That’s happening even if something like this never does. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

The Four Ways The Earth Will Actually End

It isn’t the rapture or some crazy prophesy, but science, that tells us when and how the end will come.

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return.” -Carl Sagan

Nibiru. Planet X. The Mayan calendar apocalypse. The rapture. A new great flood. An unstoppable fire. A biblical prophesy. A supervolcano. Or a rogue asteroid or comet slamming into us. Every few years, or maybe even every few months (depending where on the internet you go), a new story, speculation, or conspiracy will go viral, claiming that the end of the world is near. Some claims are very specific; others are more vague. Yet we don’t live in a world where myth and mysticism dominate our thinking; we know that we can comprehend all that’s to come using the predictive power of science. Based on what we know, there are four ways the Earth will meet its eventual end, and they’re all going to happen someday. Here’s what that’s going to look like.