A NASA-powered study by Japan’s Toho University reveals Earth’s life will end not due to meteors or climate change but from a gradual oxygen loss. The process, expected to take billions of years, results from changes in the sun’s brightness, which will disrupt the planet’s atmosphere and reduce oxygen levels critical to survival.

BulletsIn

• Earth’s life won’t end via asteroid or climate disaster, but by oxygen depletion
• Study backed by NASA, led by Toho University scientists in Japan
• Simulations modeled Earth’s atmosphere and chemical evolution over billions of years
• Gradual increase in Sun’s brightness will disrupt atmospheric gas balance
• This change will drastically reduce breathable oxygen on Earth
• Oxygen loss will not be sudden, but gradual over millions of years
• Result: collapse of human and animal life systems
• Study confirms such changes are billions of years away
• No immediate threat to current life on Earth
• Offers long-term view into planetary life cycle and eventual extinction