CHINTAN

WHAT IF
First published by CHINTAN KUMAR SINGAL
2022

Copyright © 2022 by CHINTAN

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 Contents
1 WHAT IF WE DISCOV-
ERED ALIEN LIFE ON MARS? 1
2 WHAT IF WE NUKED MARS? 9
3 WHAT IF THE SUN WAS
SMALLER THAN THE EARTH? 14
4 WHAT IF A BLACK HOLE
ENTERED OUR SOLAR SYSTEM? 19
5 WHAT IF WE DISCOV-
ERED ALIEN LIFE? 24
6 WHAT IF WE SUDDENLY
LOST THE MOON? 31
7 WHAT IF WE TRASHED
EARTH’S ORBIT WITH
SPACE JUNK? 36
8 WHAT IF THERE WERE
ADS IN SPACE? 41
9 WHAT IF YOU WERE A
SPACE TOURIST? 46
10 WHAT IF YOU ATE AN ALIEN? 52
11 WHAT IF A SUPERNOVA
EXPLODED CLOSE TO EARTH? 56
12 WHAT IF WE COULD
OPEN A PORTAL TO A
PARALLEL UNIVERSE? 61
13 WHAT IF A MAGNETAR
COLLIDED WITH A BLACK HOLE? 67
14 WHAT IF THE SUN EX-
PLODED TOMORROW? 71
15 WHAT IF WE SETTLED ON
AN EXOPLANET? 77
16 WHAT IF THE SUN SWAL-
LOWED EARTH? 81
17 WHAT IF YOU FELL INTO
A BLACK HOLE? 86
18 WHAT IF EARTH WAS
SHAPED LIKE AN AMERI-
CAN FOOTBALL? 92
19 WHAT IF WE BUILT CLOUD
CITIES ON VENUS? 97
20 WHAT IF THE EARTH WAS
ACTUALLY FLAT? 102
21 WHAT IF A ROGUE PLANET
ENTERED OUR SOLAR
SYSTEM? 110
22 WHAT IF EARTH WAS THE
ONLY PLANET IN THE SO-
LAR SYSTEM? 115
23 WHAT IF WE EXTIN-
GUISHED THE SUN? 121
24 WHAT IF WE BUILT A
RING WORLD IN SPACE? 126
25 WHAT IF HUMANITY BE-
CAME AN INTERSTELLAR
SOCIETY? 131
26 WHAT IF THE MOON FELL
TO EARTH? 136
27 WHAT IF YOU FELL INTO JUPITER? 142
28 WHAT IF YOU STEPPED
INTO THE VACUUM OF SPACE? 148
29 WHAT IF EARTH HAD
RINGS LIKE SATURN? 154
30 WHAT IF WE BUILT CITIES
ON THE MOON? 168
31 WHAT IF WE SENT OUR
TRASH INTO THE SUN? 173
32 WHAT IF A TURKEY HIT
EARTH AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT? 178
33 WHAT IF WE COOLED
THE EARTH WITH SOLAR POWER? 183
34 WHAT IF WE COULD SEE
THROUGH A BLACK HOLE? 189
35 WHAT IF TARDIGRADES
WERE THE SIZE OF HUMANS? 195
36 WHAT IF HUMANS COULD
FLY? 202
37 WHAT IF WE USED THE
FULL CAPACITY OF OUR
BRAINS? 207
38 WHAT IF OUR BODIES
KEPT EVOLVING? 211
39 WHAT IF YOU WERE
SWALLOWED BY AN ANACONDA? 216
40 WHAT IF YOU STOPPED SLEEPING? 222
41 Chapter 41 242
 One

WHAT IF WE DISCOVERED
ALIEN LIFE ON MARS?

J (28
ust north of the Martian equator lies a 45 km
mi) wide impact crater that scientists believe
may have been the site of an ancient lake. Here
at Jezero Crater, scientists theorize that its frozen
soil may contain the most significant discovery of
humankind, life. On February 18th, 2021, NASA’s
Perseverance rover will search this crater to find out
if we’re truly alone.

What is the likelihood of life on Mars? What would

these Martians look like? How will we send samples
back to Earth?

As Scientific American puts it, “it would take a near

1
miracle for Mars to be sterile.” Astrobiologist Chris
McKay at Nasa believes that Earth and Mars have
been sharing materials for billions of years. Kind
of like using your roommate’s spice rack. What? I
thought you said it was communal

Comets or large meteorites that have hit Earth may

have also sent debris onto Mars. A tiny fraction
of this debris on Mars could have carried the same
microbes that kickstarted life as we know it on Earth.
But what would this alien life look like?

METEORITE CRASHING ON EARTH

Many scientists agree that whatever life on Mars

we might find would need to be incredibly robust.
With the combination of radiation and freezing

2
temperatures on Mars, could any lifeform survive
such a harsh environment?

As far-fetched as it sounds, microbiologists have

discovered many organisms that thrive in extreme
environments. The tardigrade, or water bear, is
a highly resistant extremophile. It can withstand
extreme heat, cold, pressure, radiation, and even a
complete lack of oxygen.

IMAGE OF A WATER BEAR

There are also certain types of bacteria on Earth that

rapidly produce spores when faced with hazardous
conditions. The bacteria can then hibernate dur-

3
ing an extended period of drought and withstand
intense ionizing radiation.

A team of over 1,000 geologists, chemists, physicists,

and biologists worldwide have drilled 4.8 km (3 mi)
into the Earth and discovered robust lifeforms. Mars
has a similar geological past to Earth. So looking
underground could be a great place to start.

By drilling into the Jezero Crater, we could en-

counter spores associated with a relatively recent
geological era. And on future missions to Mars, we
may dig even deeper and uncover fully vegetative
microbes. To find rock samples that might support
life, NASA’s Perseverance rover uses an array of
lasers, called a SuperCam. It can study the surface
of Mars at a distance.

One of the lasers will heat a rock sample and

vaporize it. This creates a plasma that can be
analyzed to understand its elemental composition.
Another laser will reveal which compounds are in
the dirt.

If the SuperCam detects organic molecules or ele-

vated concentrations of elements like nitrogen or
phosphorus, the rover will head over to take a closer
look. It will then scan the soil in greater detail
4
to detect any organic material hiding in the dirt.
NASA’s team on Earth only has one shot at picking
the right spot to gather these samples. With limited
space onboard the rover, only a few dozen samples
can be collected.

So no pressure, and uh, fingers crossed. If all goes

well, NASA plans to bring back samples known for
preserving biosignatures on Earth. Biosignatures
are faint molecular traces left behind by microbes
billions of years ago.

Once the samples are collected, NASA and the

European Space Agency plan two missions to get
them back to Earth. This involves blasting tubes
of rock and soil samples into orbit to be collected
by another spacecraft and then returned to Earth.
Woah, this looks kinda fun.

5
ROCKET SENDING MARS ROCK SAMPLES BACK
TO EARTH

If Perseverance’s mission is successful, the discovery

of life on Mars would be as groundbreaking as
the discovery of DNA. In 1543, Copernicus boldly
shook the status quo with his theory that the planets
orbited the Sun. His discoveries completely changed
our worldview, no longer putting Earth at the center
of the Universe.

Discovering life beyond Earth could be just as

powerful. But not finding any life could raise even
more questions. Is the Earth truly special? Are
we alone out there? Even if we don’t discover life,
these Martian rock samples will allow chemists to
study geochemistry, mineralogy, and foundational
bedrock materials of Mars in detail.
6
In 1976, two Viking landers became the first space-
craft from Earth to touch down on Mars. They too
probed for life in the Martian soil, and the results are
still debated to this day. One experiment indicated
that the Martian soil tested positive for metabolism.
On Earth, this would almost certainly suggest the
presence of life. But another related experiment
found no trace of organic material whatsoever.

While most scientists have not reconciled the con-

flicting results, the consensus is that there is no
conclusive evidence of life on Mars. But several
researchers disagree. Recent discoveries of terres-
trial microorganisms surviving outside of the ISS
indicate that life may be resilient enough for Mars.

And methane in the Martian atmosphere could

be a sign of microbial methanogens, a type of
microorganism that produces a significant amount
of methane. Stinky aliens. Mind you, it’s possible
that life on Mars didn’t have the right conditions to
start at all. Or maybe it died off from an extinction
event similar to the asteroid that wiped out the
dinosaurs.

Or it’s even possible that we might end up finding

a life that was accidentally brought to Mars by one
of our many rovers. Let’s hope this Perseverance
7
mission doesn’t turn into a 2.7 billion dollar face-
palm. If Mars is your bag, well, have you ever
thought about setting up shop there? With recent
developments in rocketry, colonizing Mars might
be possible in our lifetime.

***

8
 Two

WHAT IF WE NUKED MARS?

L ife on Mars might be like this. You’d live in

giant glass domes, and grow small portions
of food inside. And if you happen to go outside,
it would be in your big clunky spacesuit, and you
wouldn’t be able to stay out for long.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Mars could end

up looking and feeling a lot more like your planet,
Earth. But how?

Well, we could nuke it! Wait! What? Would

dropping nukes on Mars make it easier to live there?

Believe it or not, this is something scientists have

considered for decades. Elon Musk of SpaceX seems
9
to think that nuking Mars might be one of the
best and quickest options to make it a place where
humans could live.

DROPPING NUKES ON MARS

The idea is that we would explode thermonuclear

bombs in the sky over the planet’s two poles. This
would heat up the ice caps, and release carbon
dioxide and water from the poles.

Then, the greenhouse effect would take place. It

would heat up the whole planet, making the surface
more habitable.

10
This sounds super quick and easy! So why haven’t
we done this yet?
It’s because there’s a high chance that nuking Mars
might not work out the way we want it to. There
are many things that could go wrong with this plan.

The first problem is it’s all just theory, and the theory
could be wrong. That’s because Mars has been losing
its atmosphere for a long time.

Earth’s atmosphere is almost 100 times thicker than

Mars’. And if we’re going to live on Mars, it needs a
thicker atmosphere.

Some scientists think we could release CO2 from the

North and South Poles, and this could make Mars’
atmosphere more like Earth’s. But a 2018 study,
published in “Nature Astronomy,” found that even
if the nukes are successful, it would only increase
Mars’ atmosphere to 7% of Earth’s.

Even if we create more carbon dioxide in Mars’

atmosphere, it still wouldn’t be nearly enough to
heat the planet. And the planet could seriously use
more heat, since its current temperature averages
around -63°C (-81.4°F).

And it would take decades for the red planet to warm

11
up, even after it gained the extra CO2. So, in theory,
this could delay humans from even landing on Mars.

Not only that, but this assumes that dropping ther-

monuclear bombs on the planet would go perfectly.
Keep in mind that these are nukes. You know, the
things that can destroy entire cities?

In fact, the bombs we’d use on Mars would be 1,000

times stronger than the ones used in WWII. If a
bomb exploded on the planet’s surface, instead of
up in the atmosphere, some severe damage would
occur.

Not only would it completely destroy parts of the

planet’s surface, but it would also cause even more
radiation. That would also delay us from living on
Mars.

It’s also very likely that instead of warming Mars, a

bomb could cause a nuclear winter. This could hap-
pen from the dust and particles in the atmosphere
caused by nuclear explosions.

They’d almost entirely block out the Sun, causing

Mars to cool down even more. So, nuking Mars
probably isn’t the best idea.
And maybe we should get some humans on the
12
planet in its natural state before we start trying to
change it. But what if we nuked another planet, like
Venus?

TERRAFORMING THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE

***

13
 Three

WHAT IF THE SUN WAS

SMALLER THAN THE EARTH?

H ow big is the Sun compared to the Earth?

Imagine you were able to shrink the Sun to the
size of a basketball. At that point, the Earth would
be reduced to the size of a sesame seed. That’s how
massive our star is.

But what if this fiery ball of gas and plasma wasn’t the
biggest thing in our solar system? Would our planet
still orbit the Sun? Or would the Sun rotate around
the massive Earth? What would happen to our
planetary neighbors? What would this hypothetical
solar system look like?

Here’s what would happen if the Sun was smaller

14
than the Earth. Put our Sun next to a supergiant
star, and you wouldn’t even be able to spot it. But
compared to Earth, the Sun is enormous.

It would take the equivalent of 1.3 million Earth to

fill up the volume of the Sun. It’s so big that it makes
up over 99% of the mass of our entire solar system. It
only looks small from Earth because it’s 150 million
km (93 million mi) away.

If hypothetically, the Sun was smaller than the Earth,

our solar system would look completely different.
The bad news is, the Earth would be uninhabitable,
and the Sun… well, this massive star may no longer
be a star.

In the universe, size matters. And so does distance.

It just so happens that the Earth is close enough
to the Sun that it doesn’t freeze over like Mars. It’s
also far enough away that it doesn’t get scorched like
Venus.

We’re fortunate to be in the Sun’s habitable zone.

This means that the size of our planet, the size of
the Sun, and the distance between the two of us, are
what have made it possible for life to evolve here
on Earth. But, what would happen if the Sun was
15
smaller than our planet?

A star’s mass determines its color and temperature.

Bigger stars are hotter and bluer, while smaller ones
are cooler and redder. The Sun is a white star – not
as big as a supergiant, and not as small as a red dwarf
star.

You might think that by making it smaller in size,

it would just turn it into a red dwarf with a smaller
habitable zone. But that’s not the case. By definition,
a star, whether it’s a supergiant or a red dwarf, is
only a star when there’s thermonuclear fusion in its
core.

How small can stars get? We haven’t measured too

many red dwarfs at this point, but the smallest one
we came across has a mass of ten Earths. That’s very
close to the theoretically necessary size of a star to
sustain that fusion. Anything smaller than ten piles
of the earth wouldn’t be a star anymore, but rather
a cold and dark stellar remnant.

If for any reason the Sun shrank smaller than the

Earth, this shrunken Sun wouldn’t have the mass to
create fusion and would burn out completely. Our
solar system would lose its only star. Since the Sun
is the source of gravity that keeps us in orbit, all
16
planets, the Earth included, would float away into
space in search of another anchor.

That’s no happy ending for life on Earth.

Let’s try this again. This time, let’s make the Earth
bigger than the Sun, while the Sun’s size remains the
same.

Earth’s mass would be at least 333,000 times bigger

than it is now. Imagine the gravity that the planet
would have. Your body couldn’t handle a gravita-
tional pull strong enough to crush your bones.

A planet that big would generate enough heat and

pressure in its core to become a star itself.

Of course, there would be no life left on this hot star,

but here’s a cool thing. Our solar system would then
have not just one, but two suns. It would become a
binary star system with two stars orbiting around
each other, and planets circling them both.

In either scenario, life on Earth would have no

chance to survive. But life could possibly evolve
on other planets or even the Moon.

About a third of all stellar systems we’ve found so

17
far are binary or multiple ones. Some of them even
have stable habitable zones.
How cool would it be to live on a real-life Tatooine
with two suns in the sky?

SUN BEING SMALLER THAN EARTH

***

18
 Four

WHAT IF A BLACK HOLE

ENTERED OUR SOLAR
SYSTEM?

E ight planets, hundreds of moons, hundreds of

thousands of asteroids, and billions of comets
orbiting our Sun make up our Solar System. And not
once has a single black hole disturbed our planetary
routine. But what if it did?

Would this uninvited guest swallow up everything

on its way through the Solar System? Or would it
just slightly disrupt it?

Black holes aren’t exactly holes. They’re a large

amount of matter that has been crammed into a very
small space.
19
Being so compressed gives them an incredibly
strong gravitational pull. Not even light can escape
a black hole’s grasp.

And if you get too close to a black hole, you yourself

would get compressed to an infinitely small dot. A
black hole entering our Solar System would not be
good news. But just how bad would that be?

IMAGE OF A BLACK HOLE WITH BRIEF

DESCRIPTION OF ITS PARTS

The extent of the havoc that a single black hole

would wreak on the Solar System depends on how
big that black hole was, and how far into the Solar
System it got. If we’re talking about a supermassive
black hole, like the one residing at the center of our

20
Milky Way galaxy, our chances of survival are slim.

A monster that size would cause us trouble even

from a distance of a few light-years away. Presum-
ably, supermassive black holes have stars, planets,
asteroids, and comets orbiting around them. All
the debris that a supermassive black hole picked up
on its way through space would bombard our Solar
System.

Then, that gigantic black hole would tug whatever

was left into an orbit around it. We’d be long gone
by that time, wiped out by some rogue planet that
smashed into Earth.
Let’s try our chances with a stellar black hole. This
is a black hole that’s up to 20 times more massive
than our Sun.

If this kind of black hole made it to the outer reaches

of the Solar System, it would cause a gravitational
mess in the Oort cloud – the area of icy, comet-like
objects. A stellar black hole would hurl more comets
and asteroids into the inner Solar System, where
they could strike the planets. Earth might take some
hits, too.

But that would be just a warm-up. As the black hole

made its way through the Solar System, it would
21
disrupt the orbits of all the planets in it.

Likely, our space intruder would tangle the biggest

planet in the system, Jupiter. The black hole would
pull all the gas from the giant planet, turning it into
a swirling hot disk. It would keep pulling until it
consumed Jupiter entirely.

What would happen to our own planet in this

gravitational mess? Things wouldn’t be good for
Earth. The black hole would start affecting us even
from a distance of Pluto’s orbit. First, it would pull
us out of the habitable zone, and we humans might
not be ready to adapt to this change.

We wouldn’t have much time to complain, since

there would be worse things ahead. As the black
hole approaches Earth, it would cause the cracking
of the planet’s crust. We’d see extreme earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions.

The ocean tides would be devastating, too. By the

time the black hole passed Earth’s orbit, there would
be nothing left of our planet but a sterile surface
paved with magma.
Maybe Earth would be ejected from the Solar
System altogether. That would probably be for the
best because when the black hole got close enough
22
to the Sun, it would start drinking up the Sun’s
flaming gas, and pulling our center of gravity into
its insatiable stomach.

If somehow, Earth stuck around for the afterparty, it

would be torn to shreds and consumed by the black
hole. Just one more way for Earth to come to an end.
Luckily, black holes don’t seem to be very numerous
in the Universe.

BLACK HOLE ENTERED OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

***

23
 Five

WHAT IF WE DISCOVERED
ALIEN LIFE?

W ould this be good or bad news?

There are at least 100 billion galaxies in the

observable universe. And there might be many more
in the universe that we can’t see.

There are around 500 billion planets in the Milky

Way alone, and at least 10 billion of them are Earth-
like. All these planets, and yet, we’ve discovered
exactly zero alien life forms.

But what if we did? What if NASA announced that

they found microbes in the oceans of Europa? Or
ancient alien ruins on Venus?
24
What would that mean to our human civilization
here on Earth? Would we consider that good news
at all?

Since humans began searching for extraterrestrial

life within our Solar System in the 1890s, we’re still
waiting to encounter an alien life form. But if we
did find one, that would be very bad news. Because
in that case, we might as well be dead.

Obviously, in this case, we’re referring to the life

that comes from a planet other than Earth, not
alien residents of other countries. Humans have
speculated about alien life for decades, ranging from
simple bacteria to advanced species.

Most of our speculation on alien life is based on the

simple fact that the universe is huge. How could we
be the only life in the galaxy, let alone the universe?

This logic is based on the Copernican principle.

Named for the scientist Nicolaus Copernicus, the
principle states that the Earth and the Sun are not
observers in the universe, nor are they better or
worse than every other planet. Everything that
applies to other planets applies to Earth… including
life.

25
Scientists have proposed various ‘habitable zones’,
where extraterrestrial life could theoretically live.
Billions of ‘Earth-like’ planets have been discovered,
but very few have been found in one of these zones
which meet the criteria for life.

These zones require solvent water, which is a neces-

sity for life on Earth.

So, what if the aliens invaded? It wouldn’t look

anything like the alien invasion you might imagine.
Nobody would blast their super-advanced weapons
at us… Hopefully not.

Even if they did, it wouldn’t be that much of a

problem. Because by the time we found alien life,
we’d already been on our way to self-destruction.
All because of the Great Filter. But what kind of
filter is capable to kill our entire civilization? And
why?

Let’s back up a little bit. Basic probability asserts

that alien life must exist somewhere in the Universe.
If that were the case, wouldn’t we be able to see some
signs of life out there? But we don’t. The Universe
seems endlessly empty.

It’s this contradiction that has been blowing scien-

26
tists’ minds ever since they realized that the Universe
is very, very big. They called it the Fermi paradox. It
also says that all species in the Universe go through
the same evolutionary path, no matter where they’re
from.

First, the development of life anywhere in the Uni-

verse starts with the right star system and a planet
that has just the right conditions.

Then organic compounds assemble themselves into

self-replicating patterns and eventually evolve into
more complex multi-cell organisms. All the way up
to the species with the big brain, that eventually take
over their own planet and change it according to
their needs. Here on Earth, that happens to be us,
humans.

Then there’s the last step – space colonization. That

could happen for many reasons – overpopulation
and the need to spread out to survive, the conquest
of solar systems one after another, or even simple
curiosity. Whatever the reason is, all civilizations
will end up trying to colonize space.
Some alien species may have been around for
billions of years longer than us. But they still haven’t
shown up here on Earth. Looks like something is
making it very hard to colonize a galaxy, maybe even
27
impossible. The Great Filter. Yes, the thing that
might wipe out all of humanity.
It’s something very dangerous, something that
happens to every civilization that is advanced
enough to go beyond their planet. One of the
steps on everyone’s evolutionary path. Something
that takes maybe billions of years to go through.

Having never met life on other planets means that

the hypothesized Great Filter didn’t wipe us out.
Instead, we might be the first civilization to pass it
safely, and the first to reach this level of technology
in the entire Universe.

But, just because we haven’t seen them, doesn’t mean

they don’t exist, or never existed…. There’s a chance
some aggressive alien species might have been on the
way to Earth to destroy us all. But since they never
showed up on our planet, that means something
destroyed their entire civilization before they even
reached Earth. The Great Filter?

It doesn’t look like we’re going to find anyone as

advanced as we are. If there was a more advanced
civilization than ours, we’d know it by now. The
most we can hope for is bacteria on Mars or multi-
cellular animals in the oceans of Europa.

28
Both options would be disturbing, but the worst
thing to find would be the ancient ruins of an
advanced alien civilization.

Because if they didn’t get past the Great Filter,

neither did we. The only difference is that they
are long dead, and we are just on our way to self-
destruction.

The more complex and advanced the discovered

alien life was, the more likely it would mean we’re
behind the Great Filter.

Maybe that filter starts once the species take control

over their own planet?
AI destroying its creator… Experiments that blow
up the whole planet… Genetic engineering went
wrong… Climate change…It could be anything. It
might have happened to those dead alien civiliza-
tions, and might happen to us, too.

Alien life might sound like the most exciting dis-

covery of our time. However, it may be better for
us if the Universe is absolutely sterile, and there
are billions of new planets to be discovered and
terraformed.

29
WHAT IF WE DISCOVERED ALIEN LIFE?

***

30
 Six

WHAT IF WE SUDDENLY
LOST THE MOON?

T
it?
his giant rock lights up the night and can even
change colors. So what would we do without

Would we all need night vision goggles? How would

it affect the ocean tides? Our seasons? Or our sleep
cycles? Or would the consequences be far more
drastic?

As the closest celestial body to our planet, the moon

exerts a gravitational pull that governs much of what
happens here on Earth Take the sea, for example.
If you like surfing, you can thank the moon when
31
the moon’s gravitational pull tugs on our spinning
Earth, the oceans respond, giving us high tides in
some parts of the world, and low tides elsewhere.

And while the wind gives waves their energy, tides

define their shape. High tides generally yield smaller
waves that take longer to break, because there is
less resistance from the ocean floor. Incoming
waves at low tide break faster since there’s less water
between the surface and the bottom. The moon’s
gravitational attraction also keeps our world on an
even keel. That is, it keeps us at a stable 23.5-degree
tilt relative to the sun, giving us four seasons and a
liveable climate.

But what if that liveable climate were to suddenly

become… unliveable? With the moon gone, its
stabilizing effect on Earth’s rotation would go with
it. Want the good news first? The weekend just got a
whole lot closer! If the moon suddenly disappeared,
a day on Earth would only be six to eight hours
long. Over millions of years, shifting tides and
their pressure on Earth’s continents have slowed
our planet’s rotation, giving us 24 hour days.

But without the moon’s strong gravitational influ-

ence, the world would spin three to four times
faster than it does now. Here comes the bad news..
32
Rotating at that speed, we would experience winds
up to 480 km per hour (300 mph). Birds and insects
would have no chance of survival. The luckiest land-
based organisms would either be deeply-rooted
plants, or very short, very stout animals.

SOME FACTS ABOUT MOON

Most of our marine life would be wiped out; since

sea creatures that rely on ocean currents for survival

33
would lose the privilege of the ocean’s pull. Currents
help circulate vital nutrients from the ocean floor to
the surface while flowing oxygen-rich surface water
deep into the sea. We’d still have tides, but they’d
now be governed by the sun. And from a distance
of 93 million miles away, they’d only be one-third
as powerful.

But with the moon suddenly out of the way, the

oceans would rip towards the sun, creating catas-
trophic waves, killing thousands, and submerging
coastlines. At this point, we’d have to adjust to new
ocean currents, which, circulating at a slower rate,
would be heating up equatorial waters while turning
polar waters frigid.

These extreme differences would produce a similar

effect on land as well, since ocean temperatures
influence their regional climates Along with the
sun, Mars and other nearby planets could also claim
a share of gravitational influence over our planet,
pulling Earth in different directions, and causing it
to tilt with increased volatility.

Earth’s axial plane would vary by some 10 degrees,

causing dramatic shifts in seasons, and rendering
our climate uninhabitable. Most crops would die
with the drastic temperature changes. We’d expe-
34
rience the worst ice ages known to man, as huge
glaciers from the north and south poles would en-
croach upon the Earth, covering everything except
perhaps a small band along the equator.

So while full moons may attract werewolves, that’s

still better than an alternative world where the moon
doesn’t exist. The next time you look up at the sky,
be glad it’s still there. Sleep soundly tonight, surf’s
up in the morning.

***

35
 Seven

WHAT IF WE TRASHED
EARTH’S ORBIT WITH SPACE
JUNK?

W ith every rocket we launch into the Earth’s

orbit, we’re trapping ourselves on our own
planet. Wait, how could sending rockets into space
put an end to space exploration?

And how dangerous would it be to get stuck here

with all the space debris floating above our heads?
Almost everything that we’ve launched into space
ends up either falling down and burning up in the
atmosphere or getting caught in the Earth’s lower
orbit for thousands of years.

Right now, the Earth’s lower orbit is surrounded by

36
just 200 kg (440 lbs) of small, rocky debris in the
form of meteoroids. But it’s also got a belt of about
3 million kg (6.6 million lbs) of space junk.

20,000 pieces of debris as large as a softball, 500,000

pieces larger than marble, and many millions of
pieces of debris too small to track are orbiting the
Earth. And they’re turning the space around us into
an impassable junkyard.

What makes those floating parts of old satellites and

spent rocket bodies so dangerous? It’s the speed they
move at.

This junk is hurtling through space at a speed of 8

km/s (5 mi/s). At this speed, one small bolt is enough
to shatter a working satellite into hundreds of pieces.

But it’s what comes next that could hold off our
dreams of building Moon bases, colonizing Mars,
and any space exploration whatsoever. The more
junk we leave uncontrolled in the Earth’s lower orbit,
the harder it is not to get hit by it.

Things are running into each other. Fragments of

debris are colliding and breaking up, multiplying the
number of items flying through the space junkyard.
They are hitting working spacecraft, too.
37
One day they could hit enough satellites to initiate an
unstoppable, destructive chain reaction – the Kessler
syndrome.

The cascade of collisions would make our lower

orbit so congested with man-made debris, that
eventually there would be no active spacecraft left.
Everything in the Earth’s orbit would be turned into
a deadly wall of celestial scrap.

Near-Earth space would become unusable. No

rockets could be safely launched until we cleaned
up the orbit. We’d have to put our space missions
on pause, and we’d be trapped on the planet for
generations.

What would it be like down here? Well, the debris

belt wouldn’t rain down on Earth and cause massive
destruction; space rubbish would disintegrate in the
atmosphere before it reached our planet’s surface.

But the collisions would produce a lot of dust. That

dust, illuminated by sunlight, would cause an ever-
present twilight on the planet. With this form of
light pollution, you’d forget what nights used to look
like.

What’s even more unpleasant – all of our satellite

38
networks would go down. There’d be no satellite
communications, no GPS navigation, no weather
data, and no way to do any science in the Earth’s
orbit.

You’d have to go back to paper maps — and get your

cash out. Welcome to the 1970s.
On a positive note, science has already come up
with a few ideas for cleaning up our near orbit mess.
They’re looking at capturing space debris with a net
or harpoon or vaporizing the small bits of junk with
lasers.

Whatever action we deploy, we should act quickly if

we want to launch humanity on far-space missions
and finally colonize that red planet.

EARTH’S ORBIT TRASHED WITH SPACE JUNK

39
***

40
 Eight

WHAT IF THERE WERE ADS

IN SPACE?

I magine, instead of looking up and seeing the

stars, you see something like this: Coca-Cola
ads are seen on billboards, magazines, online, and
now in space.

How would this affect our night sky? How would

it change space travel? And is this something you’ll
see one day?

So, will we ever see ads in space? The answer is most

likely. A Russian company has begun prototyping
what that might look like.

They want to place thousands of briefcase-sized

41
satellites nearly 500,000 km (310685 miles) from the
surface of the Earth. These satellites would reflect
light from the Sun and be seen during the night on
Earth.

Luckily these things will only be up for about 6

minutes or so before they move on to another part of
the Earth. But even when we don’t see them, they’ll
still affect our world. Why?

The first thing you’d notice with ads in space would

be a lack of stars — due to light pollution. Light
pollution around the world is already bad enough.
With big bright ads in space, you can expect it to get
even worse.

Even if you don’t see any ads, there’s a good chance

you’ll still see the effects of them. Because light from
the ads would be impossible to control, you’d likely
be seeing radiant light coming off of them.

Observatories and astrologists would be rendered

practically useless. Without astronomy, it’d be
challenging to learn anything new about space.

Eventually, the advertising could become so over-

whelming that the entire sky is taken up with ads and
that’d be all you’re able to see. And unfortunately,
42
this could become a reality.

That’s because, according to the United Nations

Outer Space Treaty, no one can own space. So
technically, companies could advertise anywhere
around the world. That is as long as they get
permission from the country they’re departing from.

A country you wouldn’t get permission to deploy a

space ad is the United States. That’s because logos in
space that can be seen from Earth have been banned.
Even though they won’t let space ads depart from
their country,
who’s to say a company from Europe wouldn’t fly
their own ads to be put above America?

If there are tons of ads in space, another thing we

need to worry about is more space junk. Space
is pretty unpredictable, and with more and more
objects hovering above the Earth, a number of things
could happen.

There’s always the chance these ads could get hit

by meteors and asteroids and then collide into our
satellites. If our satellites go down, this would affect
everything from communications, power lines, and
transportation systems.

43
It might sound like a bleak reality, but there is one
good thing that could result from space-advertising.
If companies were to pay to put their ads in space,
they’d have to pay space companies to get them up
there.

This could be a way of pumping money into space

exploration, an already criminally underfunded
industry. If a company is willing to spend millions
of dollars for a 60-second commercial during the
Super Bowl, imagine how much they would pay to
get their ad in space?

With more money being funneled into companies

like NASA they could use it to explore more of our
Solar System.

44
ADVERTISMENTS IN SPACE

***

45
 Nine

WHAT IF YOU WERE A SPACE

TOURIST?

S pace tourism is happening now. Soon enough,

you might be able to take your own vacation
into the cosmos.

What would your travel experience be like? What

would you see? And how much would it cost?

Several companies are offering up an authentic

astronaut experience. 12 days up in space. Growing
your own food. Hanging out on the holodeck.
Incredible views, not to mention being in zero
gravity the whole time! They may even build space
condos! Imagine your vacation home being on the
moon?
46
Sounds like fun right? But hold on… how much will
this cost again?

A space vacation is not going to be cheap; let’s hope

you have deep pockets. A 12-day mission will cost
you $9.5 million. And hopefully, you don’t have a
job either, because in order to go up into space you’ll
need to complete a three-month training course
beforehand.

If you’re looking for something a bit more lux-

urious, book your getaway in a space hotel. A
Russian company is developing a hotel attached to
the International Space Station. It’ll come with four
bedrooms, massive windows, hygiene facilities, and
even Wi-Fi for all your inevitable Instagram selfies.

Think edge walking on a tall building is exciting?

Well, how about a spacewalk? Companies plan to
let passengers venture outside the Space Station and
walk around. They will have a guide, as well as a suit
that has its own personal rocket propellers.

Aspiring astronauts can stay here for up to a

month… if they have $60 million to spare. Not
worth that much?

Don’t worry, you still have other options. That is if

47
you happen to have a cool $250,000 lying around.
For that price, companies will take you up into space
for a couple of minutes.

Enough to see some beautiful sites and experience

a short burst of zero gravity. Maybe if this option
gets a little cheaper, thrill-seekers will choose it over
skydiving: it’ll only require one day of training. The
best part? You don’t need to wait. Flights like this
are happening right now.

If you’re not interested in just hanging out in space

and want to go on an adventure, maybe you’ll choose
to travel with SpaceX. In 2023, the company is
bringing a group of artists to space for a six-day trip
around the Moon. Maybe after that, they’ll open it
up to the public and you’ll be able to take your own
trip!

But let’s not get too excited. As of now, no compa-

nies are actually planning to land you on the Moon.
And Mars isn’t even in the conversation; that’s too
expensive, too dangerous, and should probably be
left to the professionals for now.

All these trips sound like fun if you have the money,
but let’s be clear that they have the potential to be
48
extremely dangerous. Apart from something going
wrong on the Space Station, you’d also have to worry
about your body.

If not adequately conditioned, or in good health,

you could experience a heart attack or fainting, and
that’s before you even get to space. Once you’re
there, you’ll experience extreme disorientation. You
won’t know what’s up or what’s down. And oh yeah,
you’ll probably be throwing up. A lot.

Another thing passengers will need to worry about

is space radiation. Passengers may experience more
radiation than the average astronaut because of
where they’ll be traveling. Not only that, but these
spaceships may not be equipped with radiation
protection areas. NASA has one, but who’s to say if
these upstart space travel agencies will have them?

Exposure to too much radiation can cause cancer

and overall damage to your body. Luckily, the
chances of getting significantly hurt by it are slim,
but it’s not something that travels insurance is likely
to cover.

In the past 50 years, only 550 people have been up

into space, and only seven of them were private
citizens. Could you be the eighth? Probably not,
49
at least not for another decade or so. Space tourism
right now is only for the rich. But it’s slowly getting
more accessible, and one day you might be able
to order room service with a stunning view of the
Earth.

WHAT IF YOU WERE A SPACE TOURIST

***

50
51
 Ten

WHAT IF YOU ATE AN

ALIEN?

A re we alone in this universe? Is there intelligent

life out there? Or are they living among
us? Humans have wondered about aliens for
centuries. But, have you ever thought about the
most important question of them all?

Why would you want to eat an alien in the first place?

Would it be unethical? And, would they be safe to
eat?

You’ve embarked on a galactic journey in search

of extraterrestrial life. In the future, technology
has advanced, allowing us to travel thousands of
light-years away. We can finally explore the faraway
52
planets in our galaxy.

As you reach the first planet, your stomach rumbles

in pain. You’ve been without food for days. The
planet is barren and arid. There isn’t anything
around to eat. Except for this guy, an alien greeting
you at the entrance of your spaceship. Houston, we
have a problem, and you’re going to kick our butts
for this one.

There’s a lot that could go wrong if a human noshed

an alien. First of all, what would an alien even taste
like? Some scientists say that aliens could resemble
cephalopods here on Earth. Namely squid, octopus,
and cuttlefish.

Some theories claim that octopuses are aliens from

outer space. So, your first encounter with an alien
might look and taste a little more like this. Anyone
up for some galactic seafood?

As you try to digest the alien, chances are you prob-

ably won’t be able to absorb many of the nutrients.
Your body would have to be able to process the
molecules that make up the alien.

This means the alien would have to have carbon-

based biochemistry like us. This would be unlikely
53
for a lifeform from another planet. Oh, and there’s
another thing you’d need to consider before chow-
ing down. What does the alien eat?

Be careful if the alien hails from a planet like Mars.

Mars has several factors that make it habitable for
organisms. However, its soil is covered in chemicals
toxic to humans.

Mars locals could thrive off the chemicals as an

energy source. But if you ate an alien living on
a toxic planet like Mars, you could be poisoning
yourself in the process. But, what if the alien
was carbon-based like us and lived in a non-toxic
environment? Well, you’d probably be fine eating it.

Uh, but to tell you the truth, I feel a little bad eating
E.T. here, don’t you? Eating aliens could provide
us with significant nutrients, maybe even ones that
we’re usually deficient in.

But, deciding whether or not to eat an alien could

weigh heavily on your moral conscience. This would
especially be the case if the alien was intelligent like
animals here on Earth.

Maybe we’re better off looking for some plants

somewhere else on the planet. But what if, instead
54
of journeying in search of aliens, they have already
found us? What if they’re watching us right now?

AN IMAGINARY IMAGE OF AN ALIEN

***

55
 Eleven

WHAT IF A SUPERNOVA
EXPLODED CLOSE TO EARTH?

A s much as we love to blow stuff up here

on Earth, no bombs or pyrotechnics could
compare to the incredible force of nature’s biggest
explosion, the supernova. As a star reaches its grand
finale and explodes, what would happen to life on
Earth if we were close by?

How far away from a supernova are we considered

safe? Could anything survive its deadly radiation?
What makes supernovae valuable to us?

Before you freak out, Earth is in a relatively safe

patch of space called the Local Bubble. This peanut-
shaped region of expanding gas in our Milky Way
56
galaxy results from nearby supernovae explosions
that occurred 20 million years ago.

These explosions helped shape our solar system,

spreading gas, dust, and heavier elements like ura-
nium and gold to Earth. Without these supernovae,
we wouldn’t have any shiny gold bling or powerful
nuclear reactors. So you can, quite literally, count
your lucky stars.
Okay, but are we in danger of any nearby super-
novae?

On average, a supernova will occur about once every

50 years in the Milky Way. Thankfully, there are no
stars massive enough to become a supernova within
50 light-years of the Earth.

There is, however, one binary starry system within

159 light-years of Earth that could potentially put us
at risk. Binary star systems are Type I supernovae.
This happens in a tumultuous dance between two
stars, where the matter is sucked from one star into
another, typically a White Dwarf.

Eventually, the white dwarf explodes, resulting in

an epic supernova. On the other hand, Type II
57
supernovae occur when a star runs out of fuel, and
some of its mass flows into its core.

Over time, the core will start to grow and get so

heavy that it cannot withstand its gravitational force.
And then, kablooey! The core collapses, and a
supernova is born.

When these explosions occur, a powerful blast of

radiation is spread throughout space that will kill
anything within 50 light-years. To put this into
perspective, our Solar System is only about two light-
years wide. So the supernova’s blast would be the
distance of 25 of our solar systems in a row.

If a supernova occured as close as 30 light-years

away we’d have bigger problems than a pandemic
on our hands. The intense blast of radiation would
carry a massive influx of high-energy neutrinos that
would boil any living creature from the inside out.
Hope you like your meals poached!
The entire Earth could be vaporized in just a
fraction of a second if the supernova was close
enough. The shockwave would arrive with enough
force to wipe out our entire atmosphere and even
our oceans.
The exploded star would grow brighter for about
three weeks after the explosion, casting shadows
58
even during the day. Even if life survived, the
superheated gas from the supernova would emit
deadly amounts of UV and gamma radiation. These
rays would destroy the ozone layer, leading to the
formation of nitrous oxide smog.

We would all have to go deep underground and

embrace our new lives as mole people to escape the
lethal radiation and poisonous atmosphere. Unfor-
tunately, there would be an increase in mutations
and deadly cancers. And to top it all off, our
phytoplankton, which accounts for almost 50% of
all photosynthetic activity on Earth, would die off.

Phytoplankton is vital to us and can absorb carbon

dioxide from our atmosphere. Without it, we’d have
a tougher time breathing. Global warming would
accelerate even further beyond our control.

And as an essential food source at the bottom of

the marine food chain, a lack of phytoplankton
would result in sea creatures becoming extinct. And
eventually, humankind would too.

So, like many What Ifs, almost everything dies.

But there might still be a few lucky species of ex-
tremophiles that could survive the intense radiation.
59
 After a couple of hundreds or thousands of years,
the supernova would leave an impressive nebula in
its wake. At the very least, we’d have a fantastic view
in our night sky. Well, for those of us that can see.

SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION NEAR THE EARTH

***

60
 Twelve

WHAT IF WE COULD OPEN A

PORTAL TO A PARALLEL
UNIVERSE?

W hat if there are other universes, just like ours?

With an infinite number of Earths? With
uncountable versions of you?

And what if we don’t have to look too far to find

them? Maybe a mirror version of our reality is right
here…

Our Universe began when a small, but very hot

singularity exploded in the Big Bang 13.7 billion
years ago. But maybe it wasn’t the only one to be
born then.
In physics, space and time fuse into one four-
61
dimensional continuum — space-time. If this space-
time is flat and stretches far beyond the limits of
our observation, there is a possibility that it holds
uncountable disconnected universes.

But for all we know, there are a limited number of

ways the particles in those other universes can be
put together. At some point, the realities will have
to start repeating themselves.

That means, in theory, our reality is only a small

part of what’s out there, and someone just like you
might be living in a parallel universe similar to our
own. And that universe may be as close as a million
trillion trillionth of a centimeter away.
Although the wall between the universes might be
incredibly small, traveling between them won’t be
easy. But it could be done.

62
IMAGINARY PICTURE OF PARALLEL UNIVERSE

All you’d need is an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor

capable of firing billions of neutrons on command.
That’s how a team of physicists, working in Ten-
nessee’s Oak Ridge Laboratory, are trying to open
the gates to a mirror universe. Of course, they have
to find it first.

It all comes from a theory that if you beam neutrons

at a wall, none should pass through. If some do
manage to make it to the other side, it would mean
that they have transformed into mirror images of
themselves as they went through the wall between
63
the two worlds.

How do we even know all that? There is one odd

thing about neutrons. In particle beams, on average,
they last for 14 minutes and 48 seconds before they
decay into protons. But if you place neutrons in a
lab bottle, they’ll break down 10 seconds faster.

It’s not something we can explain with physics yet.

Neutrons are all the same, and there shouldn’t be any
10-second difference in their lifespan, regardless of
where they are stored.

Could it be possible that the neutron experiments

didn’t go as expected because physicists accidentally
opened a portal to a mirror world?

That would be the first evidence that a mirror

universe exists right next to our own, a mirror world
with mirror atoms, maybe even a mirror Earth. An
entire mirror world almost totally cut off from ours.

Could you meet another version of yourself in that

mirror world? Now it gets a little complicated.
Even though particle configurations can repeat
themselves, the odds of finding a portal to a parallel
universe that’s exactly the same as ours are close to
64
zero.

Think about it. There are novemvigintillion parti-

cles in the Universe. That’s the number 1 followed
by 90 zeros.

Every single one of them would need to have had the

same interactions for 13.7 billion years to create an
identical universe to what we have now. The mirror
universe would most likely have its own mirror laws
of physics.

But it’s hard to know for sure since nobody has

detected a single mirror particle yet. Maybe, we
shouldn’t be searching for answers in a lab. Perhaps
we should be looking in space itself.

Our Universe is full of dark matter. We can’t observe

it directly, and we have no idea what it’s made of
or how it works. But we know that dark matter is
strong enough to stop galaxies from flying apart.

Yet, we can’t find it. Perhaps the reason is that dark

matter is leaking from a mirror world into ours. If
we could detect that, it would confirm that a mirror
universe exists. Because we know that there is five
times more dark matter than there is a visible matter
65
in the Universe, you’ve gotta think that a mirror
universe is much more massive than the one we live
in.

Even if we did manage to open a gate to another

world, the portal would be incredibly small — too
small for you to see anything without some very
powerful lab equipment. We’d still be dealing with
neutrons and protons, remember?

You could only enter that realm if you had the ability
to shrink yourself to the size of an atom.

***

66
 Thirteen

WHAT IF A MAGNETAR
COLLIDED WITH A BLACK
HOLE?

I n the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way,

there is a supermassive black hole feeding on
nearby stars. It’s called Sagittarius A*. And if a
giant gravitational monster slowly eating the galaxy
isn’t terrifying enough, there is another cosmic
monstrosity lurking around it.

Could they, one day, come a little too close and

collapse on each other? What would be left of the
Milky Way if they did? Would there be even a slight
chance that the Earth could get out of that safely?

This monstrosity creeping through the Milky Way

67
is a remnant of a giant, exploded star. But it’s not
just any remnant. It’s an extremely dense and very
magnetic collapsed stellar core — a magnetar.

Let me refresh your knowledge of magnetars. They

are born when a star at least eight times more
massive than our Sun reaches its expiration date
and explodes in a beautiful supernova.

Much of that star is gone, but the dense core of it

remains. Most of these remnants become neutron
stars. They spin very fast, usually a few times per
second. And they are composed of neutrons.

Some neutron stars have such strong magnetic fields

that they emit electromagnetic radiation from their
poles. That makes them pulsars, and you can observe
them with a telescope when their poles face the
Earth.

Only a few such pulsars develop the extremely

powerful magnetic field. They become the strongest
magnets in the Universe, the magnetars. They spin
once every ten seconds, but their magnetic field is a
hundred times stronger than that of a neutron star.

If one of those magnets came halfway between the

68
Moon and the Earth…well, you know, it wouldn’t
be pretty. But would it be as bad from a distance of
26 light-years away?

What I’d like to know is, would a magnetar swallow

a black hole, or would a black hole gobble up
a magnetar? The collision of these two giants
wouldn’t end up in an explosion, but in a quiet
cosmic merger, stretched over billions of years.

Although magnetars are incredibly powerful, they

would lose the battle with a black hole. Depending
on the trajectory of the magnetar, as well as the
size and mass of both the magnetar and the black
hole, the magnetic monster would be eaten up either
whole or slowly, piece by piece.

As the magnetar was being torn apart by the black

hole, it would be sending gravitational waves
throughout the Universe, disturbing the curvature
of spacetime. Once the black hole consumed the
magnetar, its mass would increase and expand its
event horizon.

Thanks to this expansion, more and more stars

would be flung into its dark density. The black hole
would be slowly eating our galaxy, star by star.
69
Sagittarius A* might already have a record of con-
suming neutron stars. Eventually, after quadrillions
of years of star consumption, the black hole could
gobble up the Milky Way, all of it. By that time,
humanity would most likely be long gone anyway.

IMAGE SHOWING THE COLLISION OF

MAGNETAR AND BLACK HOLE

***

70
 Fourteen

WHAT IF THE SUN

EXPLODED TOMORROW?

T hat star at the center of our Solar System,

that superhot ball of plasma that gives us heat
and energy, and amazing complexions… well, it’s a
ticking time bomb.

The Sun is about 10 billion years old. But it’s only

expected to last about another 5 billion years.

After that, the Sun will expand, becoming a red giant.

Then it will shrink to become a white dwarf, a dying
star, cooling for the next several billion years.

Of course, we’ll all be long gone before any of that

happens. But still, can you imagine what it would
71
be like to watch the Sun blow up before your very
eyes?

With a name like ‘Supernova,’ you’d think that a solar

explosion would be the most magnificent fireworks
show the world has ever seen. But in reality, you
likely wouldn’t see anything!

The Sun is 150 million km (93 million miles) away

from Earth, and it takes 8 minutes for light from
the Sun to reach us. And while that may seem super
far away, in supernova terms, well, we don’t stand a
chance.

For Earth to be completely safe from a supernova,

we’d need to be at least 50 to 100 light-years away!
But the good news is that, if the Sun were to explode
tomorrow, the resulting shockwave wouldn’t be
strong enough to destroy the whole Earth. Only
the side facing the Sun would boil away instantly.

The lucky another half would experience a rise in

temperature that would be 15 times hotter than the
Sun’s current surface temperature, and permanent
darkness. And without the Sun’s mass keeping us in
orbit, Earth would likely start floating off into space
72
while its remaining inhabitants desperately struggle
to stay alive.

There’s a chance that our planet could lock into

orbit around another star that might provide the
same light and heat as our Sun. But by the time that
happened, we’d all be long gone.

If we knew in advance the day that the Sun would

explode, then we could buy ourselves as many as
1,000 years of time, provided we had the resources
to sustain ourselves for that long. Just a few meters
below the ground you walk on, the Earth is main-
taining a temperature of about 17°C (62°F).

IMAGE SHOWING THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF

SUN

73
So, if we had enough time to prepare, civilization
could continue to live by moving underground into
a huge network of fortified bunkers. Within a
week after the explosion, the surface temperature
on Earth would drop to -18°C (0°F). Within a year,
temperatures would plummet to about -73°C (-
100°F). At this point, the oceans would begin to
freeze from the top down.

Within 1,000 years, Earth’s atmosphere would freeze

and collapse, leaving anything left on the surface ex-
posed to cosmic radiation and meteor impacts. But
hopefully, by that point, we’d have found ourselves
a new home.

The good news is that if the Sun were to explode –

and it will eventually happen – it wouldn’t happen
overnight. When the Sun does die, it will be a long,
slow, arduous process taking place over billions of
years.

The Sun will get hotter and brighter, and it will start
to expand. During this process, it will lose its outer
layers to the cosmos, leading to the creation of other
stars and planets in the same way that the violent
burst of the Big Bang created Earth.

74
Who knows? Maybe new life could form. Can you
imagine another Earth? A new humanoid species?

It’s hard to predict how our galaxy might look

billions of years from now, and it’s especially hard to
imagine our solar system without its great, golden
anchor that keeps it all together. But one day, in
the very, very distant future, the Sun will expand,
and then it will shrink, perhaps leaving room for a
new star to take its place. And if, by some miracle,
humanity still exists at that point, where might we
be living?

75
EXPLOSION OF SUN

***

76
 Fifteen

WHAT IF WE SETTLED ON AN
EXOPLANET?

A re you looking for a change of scenery? Are

you tired of boring old Earth? How would you
like a new home away from home? Really far away
from home. Like outside our Solar System far.

What exoplanet would suit us best? Are there any

pros? And more importantly, what are the cons?

An exoplanet is a planet outside our Solar System. As

of March 2020, we’ve discovered over 4000 different
ones. So, it sounds like we have some options for our
interplanetary house hunt, but we do have a “MUST”
on our list that could make or break the deal.

77
Whichever exoplanet we settle on must be located
in something called a “habitable zone.” Being in a
habitable zone means the planet orbits around a star,
kind of like our Sun. The big perk here is that water
on this planet will stay liquid.

Fun fact, we humans need water to survive, so this is

a biggie. So we got in touch with our space realtor,
and they’ve picked out a cozy little exoplanet for us
to settle on.

Teegarden’s Star b. Teegarden? Oh, that sounds

like a nice neighborhood! To sweeten the deal, this
exoplanet is only 12.5 light-years from Earth, which
means it’s one of the closest exoplanets we’ve found
so far.

It has an Earth Similarity Index of 0.95, which is the

highest of all exoplanets to date. Teegarden’s Star b
is a major contender for a settlement. But before we
rent the moving ships, let’s see what we’re dealing
with.

Teegarden’s Star b orbits an M-type star, like our

Sun, only a lot smaller and cooler. It is located
40 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the
Sun. The infrared radiation from the M-type star
would be absorbed by ice instead of being reflected.
78
That means water vapor and carbon dioxide can also
absorb and trap infrared radiation.

So, what does this mean for you? Well, you won’t
freeze to death, so that’s a win in our book.

It takes the exoplanet just under five days to com-

plete one orbit of its star. That’s something we’ll
have to get used to as it takes Earth 365 days to orbit
the Sun. Time flies, right? OK, it sounds good, but
what’s the catch? I feel like our space realtor didn’t
tell us something. Is it haunted?

Well, it’s worse. Teegarden’s Star b is tidally locked.

Tidally locked means it takes the same amount of
time for a planet to spin once about its axis as it does
to orbit once about its star.

That means that one side will always face the warm-
ing glow of the star while the other faces … the bleak,
perpetual darkness of space. Sorry um, where was
I?

One side of the planet will be scorching hot and the

other in a deep freeze. That means, depending on
which part we settle on, we’ll be trapped in a never-
ending day or night. Way to bury the lede, space
realtor.
79
So, after hearing all that, maybe we took our planet
for granted. Sure, Earth has its problems. But we’re
in a nice habitable zone, and our planet is full of
rich ecosystems. Maybe we should treat Earth like
a fixer-upper and take care of it, instead of looking
for planet B.

AN EXOPLANET

***

80
 Sixteen

WHAT IF THE SUN

SWALLOWED EARTH?

T he Sun’s core is shrinking. But as its core

shrinks, the Sun itself grows larger. And it will
continue to grow, until one day, it engulfs the Earth.
How long can you survive?
What will happen to the oceans? Will other planets
be affected?

Every one billion years, the Sun becomes 10% hotter.

But here on What If, we’re going to take billions of
years and condense the action into one month. Get
ready, because we’re going to be moving really fast
this time.

Instead of 1 billion years, it would only take four

81
days for the Sun to become 10% hotter. This means
you’ll see the Earth engulfed by the Sun in just one
month. That is if you’re still around to witness the
final event.

On day one, you’d be blissfully unaware of the

tragedy about to befall Earth. Maybe it’s a little
hotter, but that’s just the weather. It happens. But
by day four, space agencies across the globe would
be sounding the alarm bells.

By this time, the Sun would be about 10% brighter

and hotter. And while 10% doesn’t sound like a lot,
it will be the beginning of the end for us. As the Sun
heat-ups, more and more water from Earth’s surface
will evaporate into the atmosphere.

This will increase the greenhouse gas effect, causing

global temperatures to skyrocket. All of a sudden, it
will become very humid, and very hot. But the Sun’s
high-energy light would bombard the atmosphere,
splitting those water molecules into hydrogen and
oxygen.

82
 EARTH’S SIZE COMPARED TO SUN

Earth will begin to lose its water. And you won’t

be able to escape the lethal radiation on Earth’s
surface. If you want to survive, you’ll have to go deep
underground. But even under a protective layer of
Earth’s soil, you won’t be safe for long.

By day 16, the Sun would be almost 40% brighter.

Our planet’s oceans will boil, and there won’t be any
moisture left in the atmosphere.

The beautiful, lush Earth that you grew up on will

become a hot, dry, barren rock. Around day 20, the
Sun would run out of hydrogen. So instead, it will
start to burn helium in its core.

The Sun is now a red giant star and would expand

83
rapidly while losing its mass. The Sun’s gravitational
pull on Earth would be weakened, and our planet
would begin to drift away from the expanding Sun.

But not far enough. According to researchers Klaus-

Peter Shroder and Robert C. Smith, the Earth will
only have moved about 0.0002 Astronomical Units.
An Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth
and Sun.

While Earth is moving away from the encroaching

Sun, the red giant would grow up to 1.2 AU in radius.
The Sun would be larger than Earth’s orbit. It would
swallow the planet whole.

Once it’s inside the Sun’s atmosphere, Earth would

collide with particles of gas and spiral inward. And
Earth wouldn’t be the only casualty of the expanding
Sun. Mercury and Venus would be vaporized.

The rings of Saturn would melt. Pluto would

become much warmer. And if there is a liquid
surface, and a thick atmosphere on this distant
dwarf planet, it even might become inhabitable.
Unfortunately, 30 days doesn’t give the human race
enough time to prepare for such a catastrophic
event.

84
EARTH BEING SWALLOWED BY SUN

***

85
 Seventeen

WHAT IF YOU FELL INTO A

BLACK HOLE?

H ow much do you know about black holes?

What would happen if you fell into one? Say
one day you were exploring space looking for a new
planet for humans to inhabit, but came across a black
hole and decided – why not check it out? Would you
have any chance of survival? How would you get
out? Would you find a shortcut to another universe?

Despite being “black” and a “hole”, a black hole is

not a dark, empty space. In his theory of relativity,
Einstein predicted how black holes are formed.
When a massive star dies, it leaves a smaller, remnant
core behind. If the core’s mass is at least three times
bigger than the mass of our Sun, gravity overwhelms
86
all other forces and turns the core into a black hole.

But don’t let its name fool you, a black hole isn’t
a hole at all, but rather a huge amount of matter
packed into a very small space. Think of the Sun
with its gravitational field 28 times stronger than
Earth’s. If you were to walk on the Sun, you’d be 28
times heavier than you are on Earth. Now imagine
squeezing four suns in something that is just 15
miles (24 km) in diameter – the distance you can
cover in a 30-minute drive. What would the gravity
be like there?

A black hole’s gravity is so strong, that even light

can’t get out. That’s why you’ll never see one. But
you can detect it from the gamma-ray bursts that
the hole emits. These bursts, discovered by Stephen
Hawking, now carry his name – Hawking radiation.
Stephen Hawking himself believed that black holes
can be passages to another universe.

So if you were to fall into one, would you find

yourself in an alternate dimension? Every black
hole has an event horizon – the point at which the
gravitational pull becomes so strong that you can’t
escape from it. The point of no return. If you found
yourself outside of that point, you’d see that stars
are twisted around a perfect circle of darkness.
87
As you start being pulled toward a black hole, you’d
be moving faster and faster, accelerated by the force
of gravity. That’s the first bad news for you, brave
space traveler. The gravitational force of a black
hole is very, very strong. If your fell feet-first, your
legs would be feeling a stronger gravitational pull
than your head. Your body would be stretched apart.

The most common black holes are called “stellar”.

They can stretch to about 9 miles (15 km) across and
be as heavy as 20 suns. If you happened to be pulled
towards a stellar black hole, you’d be completely
torn apart before you even reach the event horizon.
So make sure to choose a supermassive one. The
one that is a million times heavier than our Sun. In
this case, your body would remain unharmed as you
cross the event horizon, as gravity would be pulling
both your feet and your head with almost the same
strength
.
And if you’re wondering where to find one – you
don’t have to look too far. There’s one right at the
center of our Milky Way galaxy. Luckily, it’s 165
quadrillion miles (or 265 quadrillion km) away from
us and will suck neither the Sun nor the planets. But
don’t pack your suitcase just yet – crossing the event
horizon is just the beginning of the challenge.
88
There’s a gravitational singularity at the center of the
black hole, where density becomes infinite. You’d
be squashed into that center and become one with
the black hole. You wouldn’t be able to tell anyone
about your experience
.
However, a person observing you outside of the
event horizon would see a very different picture. As
you were falling into a black hole, for them, you’d be
slowing down, get dimmer and redder. In the end,
you’d just freeze, never crossing the event horizon.
This is because space and time in a black hole swap
their roles. At the event horizon, he ttime comes to
a standstill, while space, on the other hand, moves
forward. You wouldn’t be able to turn around and
escape the black hole, any more than you can travel
back in time

Even when the black hole eventually died, emitting

all the particles it had absorbed (including your
body), it would be impossible to tell whether those
particles were you. Stephen Hawking, however,
found a way, in which the information about your
body wouldn’t be lost.

He theorized that there are alternate universes with

different histories. This means, in one reality you
fell into a black hole. In the second one, there was
89
no black hole.

It’s impossible to be certain from outside of the event

horizon whether there’s a black hole or not until
you fall in there. If you crossed the event horizon
and there was a black hole… Sayonara… But if you
happened to be in a reality where the black hole
didn’t exist, you’d still be alive. Just in a different
universe. There would be no way for you to get back
to ours. Would you dare explore the possibility?

ASTRONAUT FALLING INTO A BLACK HOLE

90
***

91
 Eighteen

WHAT IF EARTH WAS

SHAPED LIKE AN AMERICAN
FOOTBALL?

I magine an enormous football stranded in the

Solar System. I mean, the Earth shaped like one.

What could cause our planet to change its shape so

drastically? And what would it mean for all the life
inhabiting it?

If you thought the Earth was round, you weren’t

exactly right. And if by any chance, you thought it
was flat, you were definitely wrong. The true shape
of Earth is called an oblate spheroid. It’s a sphere
that’s squashed at the poles so that the equator sticks
out a bit.
92
Although most planets are oblate spheroids, there
are some oddly shaped cosmic objects out there.
One of Saturn’s moons, Prometheus, for one, re-
sembles a potato. And this comet looks like a rubber
duck.

And then there’s an exoplanet shaped exactly like

an American football. Imagine if that was our Earth
shaped like that.

It wouldn’t be good for us. That football-shaped

planet is called WASP-121b. And the reason why it
has a shape like that is its very close proximity to its
star.

The gravitational tidal forces of that star affect the

planet unevenly, stretching it at the equator. And
because the star and the planet are so close, the
planet’s upper atmosphere reaches 2,500°C (4,200°F).
That’s roughly half the temperature of our Sun.

WASP-121b is ridiculously hot. You definitely

wouldn’t want Earth to switch places with it. But
how about we move our planet closer to our Sun?
Would that be enough to reshape the Earth like that?

Earth orbits the Sun at a safe distance of 150 million

km (93 million mi). Scientists call this distance one
93
astronomical unit or AU.

Move the Earth a few million kilometers closer, and

it would get very hot on the planet. For example, if
we moved our planet into the orbit of Venus, the Sun
would be hitting us with 92% more solar energy.

The Earth wouldn’t get scorching hot immediately.

First, the increased brightness would cause a run-
away greenhouse effect. All our glaciers would melt,
and poison our atmosphere with elevated methane
levels.

The sea levels would rise, and force people to relo-

cate from the flooded coasts. The increased sea area
would cause even more heat absorption, raising the
temperature of the oceans even more.

As the greenhouse gases were building up, our planet

would be heating up to the temperatures of Venus.
We’re talking surface temperatures as high as 462°C
(864°F). As you might guess, no life could ever
inhabit a planet that hot.

But what if the Earth got to keep the shape of a

football, minus the extreme heat? Then life would
still go on, but it would be a little different. For one
thing, the Earth might have to rotate faster in order
94
to keep that shape. A day on Earth might become as
short as only a few hours.

Secondly, gravity wouldn’t be distributed evenly

throughout the planet. The poles would have lower
gravity, while gravitational pull at the equator would
be stronger. This is because there’d be more mass
around the equator.

Other than that, life would go on. We’d just keep

inhabiting a football-shaped planet. And maybe it
would solve that age-old argument between the Brits
and the Yanks on whose football is better.

95
EARTH SHAPED LIKE AN AMERICAN FOOTBALL

***

96
 Nineteen

WHAT IF WE BUILT CLOUD

CITIES ON VENUS?

T he Earth might not be here forever. A huge

solar flare, an asteroid impact, or a local
gamma-ray burst – anything could wipe us out for
good.

If we’re looking for someplace to escape to, there

is one planet in our Solar System that is somewhat
similar to Earth, though we don’t know much about
it. It might even be hosting some microbial life. No,
it’s not Mars – it’s Venus.

Not only are Earth and Venus about the same size,
but they both also have identical interiors with
partially liquid cores, mantles, and crusts. Yet, Venus
97
happens to be the most hostile terrestrial planet in
the Solar System.

But what if I told you that you could explore this hot
planet without ever setting foot on it? Venus isn’t a
place you’d want to land on. Thanks to its dense
atmosphere and turtle-like rotation, the surface
temperature of Venus stays at 462°C (863.6°F).

The planet’s atmospheric pressure is 92 times

greater than Earth’s. Because of such high pressure,
anything entering the atmosphere of Venus gets
immediately crushed before it reaches the planet’s
volcanic surface.

With such extreme atmospheric conditions, it is too

dangerous to attempt a manned landing on Venus.
But we wouldn’t need to go down there.

Above the dense layer of clouds, Venus isn’t that bad.

The atmospheric pressure is similar to Earth’s. The
gravity is slightly lower. The temperature reaches
75°C (167°F). Although that’s a little hot, it’s still
workable.

How would we get there? Well, we’d need to start

98
small. According to NASA’s plan for exploring
Venus, we’d send two spaceships to our destination.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth. That’s why it

would only take 100 days for the craft to arrive there.

One of the ships would be run by robots. It would

carry a special airship that it would eject into the
atmosphere upon arrival.

This airship would start to inflate itself with helium.

Since helium is lighter than air, the airship would
float, orbiting about 52 km (32 mi) above the planet.
The second spaceship would have a crew of two
people. It would link up with the airship orbiting
Venus.

The crew would have 30 days to make all the en-

vironmental assessments. After that, they’d detach
from the airship and start making their way back to
Earth.

The return trip would take about 300 days due to

the Sun’s strong gravitational pull. Even with that,
the complete mission wouldn’t take longer than 450
days.

99
After analyzing the information from the first mis-
sion, we’d begin to plan our next trip to Venus. But
this time, we’d stay there longer.

The next crew would have a year to study the planet

and its atmosphere. One of the things they’d be
looking for on Venus would be life. Scientists think
that because microbes on Earth can thrive in acidic
conditions surrounded by sulfur, there could be life
found in the Venusian atmosphere.

After the end of the second mission, we would start

preparing to stay on Venus permanently. We would
begin building cloud cities, where future generations
of humans would live and hopefully continue to
explore space and the origins of life in it.

They might even solve the pressure problem. From

there, they would terraform the planet and settle
down on the once hostile Venusian surface.

100
CLOUD CITIES ON VENUS

101
 Twenty

WHAT IF THE EARTH WAS

ACTUALLY FLAT?

I f the Earth had an edge, I hope it would look like

this. The edge of a flat Earth. I know, I know,
we’ve talked about it before. But there’s something
mesmerizing about it. A flat-Earth solar eclipse.
Diagonally growing trees. The great wall of ice,
guarded by NASA, of course.

The flat-Earthers sure have a great imagination. But

what if they were right? How would the Earth hold
up in space? Would it revolve around the Sun, or
would the Sun rotate around it? And why would you
never walk to the Earth’s edge?

In case you missed the news on the flat-Earth

102
channel, here’s a quick recap. For thousands of
years, the general public thought that the Earth
was flat, and everything revolved around it. You
know, we humans just love to be the center of the
Universe. Then Nicolaus Copernicus came around
with his spanking new theory. The theory that said
the Earth wasn’t flat and definitely wasn’t the center
of anything. His observations led him to believe that
our planet is orbiting the Sun.

And that was the time when scientists could be

burned at the stake for such claims. But here we
are, 500 years later, and some people around the
globe are convinced that the Earth is flat. Well, how
would this even work?

Do you know why the planets form in a spherical

shape? One word. Gravity.

Gravity is what’s pulling matter together, equally

from every side. And as a result, matter forms into
a sphere. Of course, this wouldn’t be the case for a
flat Earth. Anti-round-Earthers think that there’s
no such thing as gravity. We only feel like there is
because some mysterious force is accelerating the
pancake-shaped Earth upward.

103
I don’t need to tell you that you can’t increase the
speed forever. At some point, you’d be going too
fast. Ugh. Does anybody feel like a burnt pancake?
No? If you want some real science, then yes, there
would be gravity on a flat Earth. And it would be
weird.

The center of gravity on a flat Earth would be

right here, in the middle. Everything on Earth, and
around it, would be pulled toward this point. And
the further you got from the center, the stronger this
pull would be. At some point, it would begin to pull
you downward, so you’d have to start climbing.

This would be the reason why you couldn’t walk to

the edge of a flat Earth. Gravity would be so strong
around there that it would be impossible for you to
make it. You might never see the gorgeous 45 m (150
ft) tall wall of ice, called Antarctica, guard-railing
the Earth’s edge.

And you’d never learn what’s on the flip side. But at

least you wouldn’t fall off of it. There would be other
side effects of this funny gravity. Objects closer to
the edge of the Earth would fall sideways instead of
down.

104
Gravity would also make trees grow diagonally
on most of the pancake-like Earth because they’d
be reaching against the pull of gravity. All the
rain, snow, and hail would fall toward the Arctic
at the center of the Earth. The precipitation would
converge and start to build up. The oceans would
get sucked to the center of the disk too, and form
one big ocean in the middle.

A big concern would be the air pressure on a flat

Earth. Gravity would draw too much air toward
the Earth’s center, leaving the areas around the edge
with no air pressure at all.

That would be bad because people living in a flat-

Earth Australia wouldn’t have enough oxygen to
breathe. And if you lived closer to the middle, where
the Arctic would be, you’d be crushed by the weight
of the atmosphere. But not for long.

A flat Earth wouldn’t have a geomagnetic field

around it. This field is generated by the movements
of the Earth’s core. And, well, a flat Earth just
wouldn’t have one.

Nothing would be holding our atmosphere in place,

and eventually, it would spill into space. We’d be
105
exposed to solar radiation that would cause cancer,
and damage our DNA. And we’d have no breathable
air anywhere on the planet. So I hope you could find
a life support system lying around.

Now, let’s get to those questions we’ve all been wait-

ing for. What would orbit what, in this arrangement?
Would there be a day and night cycle? Or time
zones?

Every flat-Earther knows that the Sun goes in circles

around a pancake-shaped Earth, and so does the
Moon. They’re both around 50 km (31 mi) in
diameter and act like huge spotlights.

But let’s bring good old science to the equation. If

the Sun worked as a spotlight, you’d see it from
everywhere on Earth, even if it didn’t shine directly
on you. It would look like those alien abduction
scenes. Hmm, I wonder where they got the idea
from?

In this system, there would be no day and night cycle.

That would be pretty strange. How am I supposed
to get my beauty sleep?

I know how to fix this. For a flat Earth to have

days alternating with nights, the Sun would have
106
to orbit the planet this way. When the Sun was up,
the entire planet of Earth would experience daylight.
And when the sun went down, the Earth would fall
into nighttime.

There would be no time zones, and no seasons either.

But you could still mess up your schedule by staying
up late and watching WHAT IF videos. You’d be
lucky if the Sun was so much smaller than the Earth.
Sort of.

Think of this. If the Sun retained its gigantic form as

it was orbiting a flat Earth, it would burn down the
entire planet. That’s because of how close it would
get to us. On the other hand, if the Sun were much
smaller than it really is, we’d freeze to death. That’s
because the flat Earth would have nearly two and a
half times the surface area of our round Earth. We’d
be getting only one-third of all the regular-sized
Sun’s energy. That’s not enough for life on a flat
Earth to exist.

And we haven’t talked about this yet. The lunar

eclipse. Flat-Earth disciples believe in some kind
of anti-moon that’s responsible for these. On our
round Earth, lunar eclipses happen when the Earth
lines up between the Sun and the Moon. If that was
the case for a flat Earth, this is how those eclipses
107
might look. And even that would require some very
special alignment.

So, if the flat Earth conspiracy turned out to be

true, that our globe was indeed Photoshopped, and
GPS devices were rigged for some financial gain,
well, that would open up a conversation to other
conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, many people,
including the flat-Earthers, are living in a state of
cognitive dissonance. That’s when their thoughts
and beliefs aren’t quite consistent and don’t always
represent reality.

I mean, we are constantly exposed to pseudo evi-

dence that can support any theory at all. Even if
it falls flat with a bit of logical thinking. If Coper-
nicus had spent ten hours on YouTube, watching
flat-Earth conspiracy videos, even he might have
admitted he was wrong.

108
WHAT IF THE EARTH WAS ACTUALLY FLAT?

***

109
 Twenty-One

WHAT IF A ROGUE PLANET

ENTERED OUR SOLAR
SYSTEM?

U nlike Earth, which is orbiting the Sun, there

are billions of rogue planets roaming the
Milky Way not bound to any host star.

One of them has been spotted on the edge of our

Solar System. What if this interstellar object swung
through it? How would this space invader affect
the orbits of the planets? Could it possibly push the
Earth out of the habitable zone? And what if it was
on a collision course with us?

Not all planets have a home. If a planet doesn’t

belong to any star system, it’s considered a rogue
110
planet. Most of these rogues have been booted out
of their birthplace and sent on wild trajectories
through the Universe.

This is an interstellar planet with a catchy name. It’s

just 20 light-years away from us. It’s nearly 17,000
times the size of Earth and has a powerful magnetic
field that makes the planet glow with incredible
auroras.

What if this massive alien planet trespassed the

borders of our Solar System? Would this mean the
end of life here on Earth?

Once the interstellar planet invaded our Solar Sys-

tem, things could go very wrong. This rogue planet
would likely be moving at hundreds of km per
second. If we were unlucky enough to be on a
collision course with this massive alien object, the
Earth would be completely demolished.

But don’t worry. Our Solar System is quite big, and

the chances of the rogue planet bypassing us without
a fatal collision are pretty high.

Instead, our interstellar guest would be busy disturb-

111
ing the orbits of all the planets in the Solar System.
That’s because a rogue planet nearly 13 times bigger
than Jupiter would have a huge gravitational impact,
making other planet’s orbits, including Earth’s, more
elliptical.

And that’s when the bad news begins for life here on
Earth.

The Earth is orbiting in the Sun’s relatively narrow

habitable zone. Within this zone, also known as
the Goldilocks zone, it’s not too cold: so our water
doesn’t turn to ice. And not too hot: so it doesn’t get
vaporized. And neither do we. Just perfect.

Change the Earth’s orbit, and the conditions for

life won’t be so great. The rogue planet might not
push us out of the habitable zone, but it would
bring us much closer to the Sun for very short
and exceptionally hot summers. Those extreme
summers would be followed by long and super cold
winters.

Quick summers would leave us less time to grow

crops. By the end of our first never-ending winter,
humanity could face food shortages, even extinction.

The Earth might be thrown into the next ice age.

112
Instead of global warming, we’d be worried about
global cooling. We’d rethink our energy sources, and
try to pump out more greenhouse gases to warm the
planet up a little.

Solar energy, on the other hand, would be consid-

ered very inefficient in the wintertime but could
be used very effectively during the short blaze of
summer.

Count on things being much worse if the Earth gets

knocked out of the habitable zone.

At that point, the Earth would considerably cool

down. All of our water would freeze. And so would
we. This would be the end of most life on Earth. The
only way we could survive would be if we learned
to live at the bottom of the ocean, next to deep-sea
thermal vents that push out extremely hot water.

Maybe eventually, we’d evolve into a different life

form that would take control over the frozen planet.

Lucky for us, the Universe is enormous. There’s a

lot of space between rogue planets and other objects
in our galaxy. And that makes this scenario very
unlikely.
113
A ROGUE PLANET

***

114
 Twenty-Two

WHAT IF EARTH WAS THE

ONLY PLANET IN THE SOLAR
SYSTEM?

I magine never being able to dream of landing

on Mars or traveling to Saturn. Not because
it’s impossible to get there, but because they didn’t
exist. Because Earth was the only planet in our solar
system.

What would the night sky look like? Where would

Earth be located? And how would humans evolve?

The other eight planets in our Solar System aren’t

just pretty to look at, or something we strive to
travel to one day. Even though they’re billions of
kilometers away, they’ve played an essential role in
115
life here on Earth. So what would happen if they
had never existed?

Each planet in the solar system played a vital role

in the development of Earth billions of years ago,
and in keeping Earth safe today. Take the placement
of every single planet, for example. They all have
their own little space in the galaxy, and that’s not by
accident.

Our planets work together to keep each other in

place. For example, if Mercury and Venus ceased to
exist, Earth might drift closer to the Sun.

And if Jupiter or Saturn disappeared, instead of

going closer to the Sun, the Earth might drift further
away from it. This would cause a number of issues
for us Earthlings. Right now, we’re lucky enough to
live in what scientists call the “Goldilocks Zone.”
That’s because Earth sits in the range of orbits
around the Sun that are just right to sustain life.

If Earth were to move closer to the Sun, it would

get a little bit hot, to say the least. We might burn
to a crisp. The farther away we get, the more
temperature would drop. Earth would be too cold
to sustain life.

116
The position of Earth in the Solar System not only
affects life but everything that happens on our planet.
It affects our seasons, the length of our days, and
how long our year is. But unfortunately, the time
we wake up will be the least of our worries.

With Earth being the only planet in our Solar System,

there’s no telling where it might end up. We could be
all the way in the back, where Uranus and Neptune
used to be, or somewhere right up front where
Mercury once was.

It’s safe to say that no matter where we end up if

it’s not the Goldilocks Zone, there’s a pretty good
chance there wouldn’t be any life here on Earth.
If life did form somehow, it would definitely be
aquatic.

That’s because, without any other planets keeping us

in check, Earth’s gravity would be severely different.
When we say ‘no other planets’ we mean no moons
either. The Moon’s gravitational pull is responsible
for the tides here on Earth, without it, our waters
would remain still. The oceans wouldn’t rise or fall,
they would just stay where they were, covering the
entire planet (with water?).

So really, Earth as we know it wouldn’t exist if there

117
were no other planets. There’s virtually no chance
that humanity would be living today. But what if,
instead of the planets never existing in the first place,
one day they suddenly disappeared?

Apart from Earth violently moving around, not

knowing where to go, we’d also have another huge
issue to worry about. Asteroids. It’s clear that every
planet is critical to life on Earth.

If just one planet suddenly disappeared, a number of

issues would go along with it. There are two planets
that have a very special role in keeping Earth safe.
Jupiter and Saturn.
That’s because while Earth is hanging out, thriving
with life, Jupiter and Saturn are getting beat up by
millions of asteroids. Flying throughout the solar
system, there are hundreds of millions of asteroids
that are trying to kill Earth.

Luckily, we hardly see any of these, and that’s thanks

to Jupiter and Saturn. Because of their enormous
size and gravity, they do an excellent job pulling
asteroids into them so that they never make it to
Earth.

With these planets gone, Earth would be bombarded

by asteroids. Not good. In case you’ve forgotten,
118
a single asteroid hit Earth millions of years ago,
wiping out the entire dinosaur population.

So this would end up being pretty bad. An asteroid is

also most likely how we ended up getting our moon.
So without that specific asteroid hitting Earth, we
may have never have gotten it in the first place. Earth
would then be covered with massive craters, and
once again, life would cease to exist.

Luckily, you won’t have to worry about any of

this. You can rest easy knowing that Earth sits
comfortably in this perfect little spot in the Universe,
where we can all live and thrive.

Another thing you don’t need to worry about is

what would happen if the Earth lost oxygen for five
seconds. But it is fun to think about it anyway.

119
WHAT IF THE EARTH WAS THE ONLY PLANET
IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM?

***

120
 Twenty-Three

WHAT IF WE EXTINGUISHED
THE SUN?

H ow much water would you need to extinguish

the Sun? How would we deliver such an
enormous amount of water anyway?

Would all that water even make it to the star?

Wouldn’t it evaporate before reaching the Sun’s

burning flares? Whatever your plan is, be careful.
Because trying to put out the Sun would only make
it hotter.

Before we dive into how things would go terribly

wrong, let’s talk about where we could, hypotheti-
cally, find all that water. I’ve got some ideas. How
121
about the Universe’s largest ice cube?

A gigantic space firehose? Or an entire Waterworld

tossed into the Sun?

Okay, fine. Let’s be a little more realistic. No giant

ice cube will be passing our Solar System anytime
soon.

That leaves us with one possible scenario. We’d have

to sacrifice every single drop of water we have here
on Earth.

We would drain our oceans and deplete all of the

freshwaters, too. Then we’d build a very large
firehose and blast it at light speed towards the Sun’s
core. And then…

Wait, did I say there was just one option? I forgot

about the possibility of using a Waterworld. Leaving
the Earth with no Sun and no water seems a bit
unreasonable.
And we could avoid that ocean-draining scenario
if we found a way to throw an exoplanet into the
Sun. But not just any exoplanet. We’d be aiming for
a real-life Waterworld. And we just happen to know
where to find it.
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Some 40 light-years from Earth, there is a planet
primarily made of water with an atmosphere of
steam. Scientists named it GJ 1214b, but we’ll call it
the Waterworld.

This planet is 2.7 times bigger than the Earth in

diameter, and it weighs seven times more than our
planet. And it has much less rock and a lot more
water than the Earth does.
There would probably be enough water on the
Waterworld to put out the Sun forever. But it
wouldn’t happen the way you might expect it to.

If we were able to crash that Waterworld into the

Sun, the first problem would be the water freezing
in space. The same thing would happen if we could
pull out a gigantic firehose with all of Earth’s water
and aim it at our star.

The ice would continue shooting towards the Sun,

but it would face mass-evaporation as soon as it hit
the star’s atmosphere. The water vapor would then
break down to its basic ingredients, oxygen, and
hydrogen. And that’s when something interesting
would happen.

The Sun may seem like a huge fireball, but it’s not
exactly on fire. Inside its blazing core, the pressure
123
is 340 billion times more than it is on Earth’s sur-
face. This immense pressure fuses hydrogen atoms
together, making helium and giving off energy in
the process.
Since hydrogen acts like fuel for our Sun, pouring
water on it would be like throwing gasoline on a fire.
You’d see the Sun turn bluish white as it grew six
times bigger.

It would create an extreme heatwave across our

planet. But at least we wouldn’t be engulfed by
the expanding Sun, although there could be other
consequences.

We wouldn’t be able to put out the Sun with its own

fuel. But if we fired enough water at it at the speed
of light, it could break up the Sun.

The pressure inside it would drop. The hydrogen

couldn’t fuse together into helium. And that would
shut the Sundown.

With no Sun to give us warmth and light, the Earth

would turn into a frozen world. After just one
year, Earth’s temperature would drop below -73°C
(-100°F).

124
Most of the plants and animals would be dead long
before that. And what about us, humans? In the
deepest parts of the oceans, geothermal vents could
have kept us warm and supplied us with energy.

But we just poured all of Earth’s water into the Sun,

dooming ourselves to freeze. Lucky for us, the only
thing in the Universe that can do any substantial
harm to the Sun is the Sun itself, and that would
take billions of years to happen.

WHAT IF WE EXTINGUISHED THE SUN?

***

125
 Twenty-Four

WHAT IF WE BUILT A RING

WORLD IN SPACE?

T he Earth may not be our home forever.

Eventually, we may have to leave. What if
instead of finding potentially habitable exoplanet
light-years away, we stayed in our Solar System
and built a habitat so enormous we could never
overpopulate it?

How would we go about building such a thing?

Where would we find enough materials to construct
this cosmic megastructure? How long would it take
before we could move in into our new artificial
home?

Imagine you lived on a ring with a radius of 150

126
million km (93 million mi) encircling the Sun. A
gigantic artificial world with its own gravity, ecosys-
tem, and atmosphere. A world with three million
times the area of the Earth – big enough for trillions
of humans to call home.

You’d live on an enormous landmass on the inner

side of the ring. The outer shell would protect you
and all those trillions of people from the hazards of
outer space.

How does that sound? Problem is, assembling

such a thing – suspended out in the Solar System –
wouldn’t be easy.

You couldn’t just pull the Earth apart and have

an army of robots reassemble it into a ringworld.
Among the many problems you’d run into, your first
would be finding the material.

The International Space Station roaming the Earth’s

lower orbit right now weighs about 420 tons. Some-
thing like a ringworld would tip the scales at no less
than a million tons. Where would we find so much
material?

I know some places. The Kuiper Belt beyond the

orbit of Neptune would do just fine. This ring of
127
icy bodies stretches out for almost 3 billion km (1.9
billion mi).

Some astronomers think the Kuiper Belt would have

enough material for this project, although it’s hard
to tell exactly how much we’d need to construct a
thing like this.

RING WORLD IN SPACE

We might have to sacrifice all the planets, moons,

and asteroids in the Solar System. Our ringworld
would be left all alone in the entire Solar System.

If we could manage to gather and transport all the

material available, then construction would begin. It
would take a lot of physical labor, an army of robots,

128
and maybe hundreds of generations to realize that
our structure was not stable enough.

Because the megastructure would turn out so enor-

mous, it would break any known molecular bonds.
We’d have to find a way to make use of one of the
fundamental forces of nature – the strong nuclear
force. Of all forces, it’s the grippiest – it bonds
material on the scale of the atomic nucleus so that
nothing can break it apart.

Or maybe we’d come up with a new super-strong

material altogether. But until we figure that out,
every interstellar body passing through our Solar
System would be a threat to our megastructure.

The next thing we’d have to worry about is gravity.

That part is pretty easy – we’d just have to spin
the ringworld at nearly 2,000,000 km/h (1,200,000
mi/h).

I know, that’s really fast. We’d have to build up

the speed over time. Luckily, maintaining it in the
frictionless environment of space wouldn’t be too
hard. Such rotation would generate centrifugal
force, and that, in turn, would create an artificial
gravity equal to the one we have here on Earth.

129
With gravity solved, we’d bring in the atmosphere
and start populating the ringworld. For the in-
habitants of the megastructure, it would always be
daytime.

Unless we could create a day and night cycle with

extra panels inside the ring. These panels would
not only block the sunlight in some areas to give
us nighttime. They’d also be good for harvesting
energy from the Sun.

But for all the epicness of the world we just created,

it wouldn’t be stable. A single asteroid strike could
cause the structure to drift closer to the Sun. A
hole punched through the ring could let all our
atmosphere out. And a massive solar storm? Don’t
even get me started on that one.

One failure inside the ring could doom the entire

structure together with its inhabitants. It’s just too
risky to build it around the Sun. We might have
better luck with a huge ring space station in the
Earth’s orbit.

***

130
 Twenty-Five

WHAT IF HUMANITY
BECAME AN INTERSTELLAR
SOCIETY?

W hat if humanity grew to be so technologically

advanced that we were able to leave our Solar
System and spread across interstellar space?

Would we hop from one exoplanet to another, colo-

nizing everything on our way? How could we make
traveling across the Universe possible?

And what would our space civilization look like? No

human has ever been outside of our Solar System,
and only a few of us have actually left the Earth. Even
those who blasted out of here in a rocket didn’t go
too far.
131
We’re limited by the laws of physics. There are
billions upon billions of planets out there. But they
are so far away, that it would take us a very long time
to reach them.

If we jumped into the fastest spacecraft ever built,

it would take us over 70,000 years to get to our
neighboring star system Alpha Centauri. Even if we
could accelerate a spaceship to 99% the speed of light,
over 26,000 years would pass until we arrived at the
center of our own galaxy, and another 2 million
years until we set foot in the nearest neighbor, the
Andromeda galaxy.

How could we go about expanding our civilization

into space if we’re so terribly slow? To become an in-
tergalactic civilization, we’d need to break the speed
limit of the Universe. But for all we know, traveling
at lightspeed is physically impossible, nevermind
outperforming it.

The Universe is enormous, possibly infinite. And

our lifespans are too miserably short to cover that
kind of distance even at near-light speeds. But
let your curiosity take over and imagine we were
a civilization that could approach lightspeed and
travel among stars.

132
We’d start with Alpha Centauri, our neighboring star
system. Who knows – maybe the exoplanet orbiting
this three-star system would turn out to be habitable.
Then, we’d push ourselves out further to discover
the billions of other worlds.

Not all of them would be suitable for us to settle in.

In astronomy, a habitable world is a planet that is just
the right distance from its Sun-like star to be able
to sustain liquid water. But the reality is, humans,
require so much more than that. Atmosphere,
gravity, temperature – they’re all important. It’s
unlikely we’d find another planet just like Earth.

But we could build self-sustaining Earth-like biomes

on our giant spaceships, where humans would live
for generations. Or, we could terraform some rocky
exoplanets. First, we’d harvest water from a few ice
comets. Then, we’d alter the planets’ atmospheres
to resemble Earth’s. Anything to be able to breathe
in the fresh air again.

133
 AN INTERSTELLAR SOCIETY

Even though space would be so accessible, people

wouldn’t travel around the Universe much once the
new colonies were established. Even at the speed
of light, it would take generations to make a trip to
the other side of the Universe. Space is just too vast,
remember?

In this new world, you’d get to travel among stars

only if you were a part of a ship’s crew, a colonist,
or a space miner. We’d send robots to perform our
intergalactic chores. Robots don’t eat, sleep, or go
to the bathroom. They can withstand high levels of
radiation and extreme temperatures – all the things
that would kill a human being.
134
But if space travel is something you crave, consider
pursuing a career as a postal carrier. Because
the most reliable way to communicate might be…
through the mail. Surprised? Well, our satellites
rely on radio waves to transmit information. Even
though these waves travel just as fast as light, they
lose their strength over long distances. It’s like being
too far away from your WiFi router.

If humanity became an interstellar society, we hu-

mans would end up spread out across hundreds of
light-years of space. At least we’d give Earth a break,
and allow it to recover from our mistreatment.

***

135
 Twenty-Six

WHAT IF THE MOON FELL TO

EARTH?

W hat if the Moon suddenly began getting

closer to Earth? To the point where it was
on a collision course with our planet? Would the
Earth survive the crash?

Or, would a crash even happen? Would the moon

get torn up by Earth’s gravity? What would this
crumbled moon look like from Earth? Here’s what
would happen if the Moon fell to Earth. The Moon
is Earth’s only natural satellite, and the largest object
to brighten our night sky.

First, we should establish more facts about our one

136
satellite. The Moon has formed 4.6 billion years ago,
which was approximately between 30 and 50 million
years after the formation of the solar system. The
Moon is around 3,475 km in diameter, and its mass
is 7.35 × 10^22 kg, which is about 0.01 of Earth’s
mass. The Moon is also about a quarter of the size
of planet Earth. Different parts of the Moon are
vastly different temperatures. It can be as cold as
negative 173 degrees Celsius (negative 280 degrees
Fahrenheit), and as hot as 127 degrees Celsius (260
degrees Fahrenheit).

The Moon’s atmosphere is also very thin, which is

why much of what astronauts left on its surface has
not been wiped away. The Moon causes our tides by
pulling on the Earth’s gravity. The Moon is usually
an average of about 384,400 kilometers (or 238,750
miles) away from the Earth, which is approximately
the size of eight Earths. The surface of the Moon is
covered in craters because those are where it was hit
by various comets and asteroids. On one side of the
Moon, there are more than 300,000 craters that are
over a kilometer wide. The Moon orbits the Earth
every 29 days.

137
What Would Happen If The Moon Crashed Into
Earth?

It’s the first and only place beyond Earth where

humans have set foot. The Moon’s gravitational pull
causes tides on Earth. Tides that might have been
the encouragement for life in our oceans to move
on land. This pull also keeps Earth from wobbling
on its axis, making our climate relatively stable.

In short, the Moon makes Earth a more livable place.

What if it suddenly sped up, and started driving
in Earth’s direction? The Moon’s plan to destroy
Earth by bumping into it would break into pieces
the moment it reaches the Roche limit.
The Moon itself would shatter, never making it
to Earth’s surface. And that’s going to look very
impressive! But wait, what is this Roche limit?
In celestial mechanics, it is the point at which the
gravity holding a satellite together is weaker than
the tidal forces trying to pull it apart.

In other words, the Moon can only get as close as

18,470 km (11,470 miles) away from our planet,
before – BOOM! The tidal forces would tear it apart.
All the footprints and flags we’ve left on the Moon,
all of its craters and valleys would scatter to form a
138
breathtaking ring of debris above Earth’s equator,
37,000-kilometers in diameter (23,000-miles).

SOME FACTS ABOUT EARTH

Not Just Saturn, But Earth’s Rings

Making Earth the second planet in the solar system,

after Saturn, to have this striking ring of beauty. The
difference is that our rings wouldn’t last long. The
chunks of our former satellite, the Moon, would rain
down on Earth – smaller chunks first, bigger ones
later.

139
It would be as if hundreds of thousands of asteroids
were falling down on us and wiping out entire cities
in the process. But, really, our problems would’ve
begun much earlier… Once the Moon began its
trajectory towards the planet, it would increase the
tidal impact it has on us.

By the time it hit the Roche limit, it would be causing

tides as high as 7,600 meters (30,000 feet). Our world
would be devastated by an army of tsunamis – ten
times a day.

Waves so big they would expose the bottom of the

ocean and destroy everything on their way. But for
a short time, hardcore surfers would enjoy riding
some tasty waves. On the other hand, this might
become a solution to global warming. With the
Moon coming closer, Earth’s rotation would speed
up. Our days would become shorter and shorter.

Global temperatures would go down, nobody would

worry about climate change anymore. Unless aster-
oids burned the Earth to a crisp. Then there would
be no one to worry about anything. I really wouldn’t
worry about it anyway.

In fact, the Moon is drifting away from us at the rate

140
of 4 cm (1.5 inches) per year. So it’s very unlikely
we’ll get to see those pretty Saturn-like rings here
on Earth.

WHAT IF THE MOON FELL TO EARTH?

***

141
 Twenty-Seven

WHAT IF YOU FELL INTO

JUPITER?

H umans have explored the Moon, Mars, and of

course, Earth. But what do we know about
Jupiter?

For the most part, this gas giant is a mystery. So

what would happen if you wanted to discover it
for yourself and jumped right onto the planet? Or
should we say into it? Because Jupiter doesn’t
have a surface, just a seemingly endless stretch of
atmosphere.

Would you fall straight through? What would you

see on your way? And how would it make you feel?

142
If you attempted to jump into Jupiter wearing a stan-
dard spacesuit, it’d be over for you pretty quickly.

First of all, you wouldn’t even make it to the planet.

Roughly 300,000 kilometers (200,000 miles) from
Jupiter, radiation would penetrate your suit and
you’d die.

But that’s a boring What If. We’ll give you a special

space suit that can survive the fall… for now. Here’s
where the real fun begins.

At first, you’ll be falling from the top of the at-

mosphere at nearly 180,000 km/h (110,000 mph).
This is a lot faster than you’d fall from the top of
Earth’s atmosphere because Jupiter’s gravity is much
stronger than Earth’s.

You’ll still be able to see the sun, but don’t expect it

to heat you up. At about 250 km (155 miles) down
you’d reach the ammonia clouds and experience -
150 C (-240 F) temperatures.

Now, get ready for the most epic whirlpool of your

life. Jupiter’s clouds create powerful winds, up to
482 km/h (300 mph). You’d feel as if you were in one
giant, colorful tornado. That’s because Jupiter is the
fastest rotating planet in our Solar System. One day
143
on the planet is equal to 9.5 Earth hours.

Let’s go down about 120 km (74 miles) more. Con-

gratulations! This is the deepest that any exploration
has ever sailed into the gas giant.

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT JUPITER

In 1995, NASA’s Galileo probe made it this far

before it was destroyed by the pressure of Jupiter’s

144
atmosphere. But don’t worry, that’s not happening
to you. The further you travel, the darker it will get
until it’s completely pitch black.

The only source of light you’ll have will be from the

lightning storms happening all around you. At this
point, the temperature will start to increase, and
it might even feel comfortable if it weren’t for the
immense physical pressure you’ll be feeling.

The pressure you’d experience is more than 1,000

times higher than on the surface of the Earth. The
only way you’d be able to survive is if your space
suit was built like the deepest diving submarine of
all time.

By now, you’ve been falling for 12 hours and, let’s be

honest: you’re getting a little bored. You’d probably
want to radio someone to come and get you. Well,
too bad. That’s an impossibility inside Jupiter; since
radio waves get absorbed this deep into the planet’s
atmosphere.

You’ll just have to keep falling. The temperature will

keep rising, and so will the pressure. As you reach
the inner layers of Jupiter, there’ll be parts that you’ll
be able to swim through. A substance that’s not quite
liquid or gas, known as a supercritical fluid.
145
Moving through this strange material, the tem-
perature will get even hotter. Eventually, it’ll be
equivalent to the surface of the sun. If that isn’t
enough, you’ll also be experiencing pressure equal
to 2 million times the pressure on Earth.

Metallic hydrogen will begin to form, and you’ll

be surrounded by it. This relatively unknown
substance can be a dense liquid that you won’t be
able to escape from.
If you do manage to escape, you’d be falling
through it for thousands of kilometers until you
reach Jupiter’s core, possibly a solid object. Some
scientists predict it is, due to the immense pressure
at this level on the planet.

Regardless of what it is, if you somehow did manage

to survive all this, you’d be stuck from all the
atmospheric pressure.

Not a very rewarding trip. Maybe we should leave

the planet as a beautiful mystery.

146
TORNADOS ON THE SURFACE OF JUPITER

***

147
 Twenty-Eight

WHAT IF YOU STEPPED INTO

THE VACUUM OF SPACE?

Y ou might not speak perfect Klingon… But

you’re probably familiar with science fiction.
And you probably know why it’s called ‘fiction.’

What would really happen if you went into space

without a suit? Would your blood boil? Would your
eyes pop from their sockets? Would you explode?

What are the odds of survival? Vacuums are pretty

neat, aren’t they? But do you know why?

Because they are able to create an internal air

pressure that’s lower than the air pressure outside.
Leaving a void that needs to be filled, generating
148
suction, and pulling up all dirt and dust in its path.

The vacuum, then, can be considered a very small,

very rudimentary simulation of outer space. And
here’s why.

With an average of only a few hydrogen atoms per cu-

bic meter, outer space lacks molecules, atmosphere,
and pressure.

If you introduce molecules into an area without an

atmosphere, they’ll spread out as much as possible
in order to fill the void.

So what do you think would happen to your

molecules in Outer Space?

For now, let’s ignore the lack of oxygen that would

kill you in about 60 seconds. We’ll start with
Ebullism instead.

Ebullism refers to the gas bubbles that form in bodily

fluids in low environmental pressure.

At sea level, water boils at 100 degrees celsius (212

°F), but in space, the boiling point is below human
body temperature.

149
That means your blood would boil, and so would
your eyeballs, but no, you wouldn’t explode. Luckily,
Human skin is much too stretchy for that… so you’d
probably just swell up to twice your size. Returning
to the oxygen issue, yours would be gone in about
15 seconds, causing you to pass out.

Looking to fill the deep void of space, the oxygen

molecules in your body would escape very quickly.

And even if you tried holding your breath – they’d

still find a way out.

150
 THE FALSE VACUUM THEORY

Looking beyond your body for a moment, there’s

also a giant ball of piping hot plasma that can
cause you a lot of damage, even if it is 150 million
kilometers away…

On Earth, we’ve got an atmosphere to protect us.

But in outer space, there isn’t much that can help
you against the Sun’s 15 million degrees heat.

Not only would you suffer a wicked sunburn, but the

151
UV rays and the radiation would cause your genes
to mutate, and you’d almost certainly get cancer.

But there is an upshot! Despite the intense coldness

of space – minus 270 degrees Celsius, to be precise
– you wouldn’t freeze to death, since the vacuum of
space would slow the heat transfer from your body.

It’s possible you could even survive this whole ordeal

– as long as someone got you to safety within the
first two minutes…

So if you’re someone who likes to take their time

to learn, explore, and understand, maybe an unpro-
tected spacewalk isn’t for you.

Maybe this is a mission best experienced from the

comfort of your home computer, or the palm of your
hand.

But now that you can take a selfie in space, what

other crazy things will we get up to?

152
WHAT IF YOU STEPPED INTO THE VACUUM OF
SPACE?

***

153
 Twenty-Nine

WHAT IF EARTH HAD RINGS

LIKE SATURN?

I f Earth had rings like Saturn our sunsets would

be an incredible spectacle. It isn’t farfetched as
the Earth did have rings a very long time ago, the
result of a cataclysmic planetary crash that preceded
the formation of the moon.

Jupiter…. Uranus…. Saturn… Earth? Sadly, the

Earth didn’t make it onto the list of the Solar Sys-
tem’s ringed planets. If it did, would it still be able
to host life?

154
 Los Angeles at night

When the Earth was young, it most likely had a

ring of rock debris around it. 4.5 billion years
ago another planet, Theia, hit the Earth. The giant
impact sent a ring of matter hurtling into the Earth’s
orbit. But it didn’t stay like that for long. The rocky
debris soon formed another celestial body – the one
we now call the Moon.

155
 Los Angeles by day Image by Kevin Gill

Having planetary rings visible in the sky would look

way more spectacular than just one grey rock, right?
Maybe. But if our planet got beautiful rings like
these tomorrow, much of life on Earth might not
survive the renovation process.

156
 New York by day

The gravitational pull that our planet exerts on the

Moon isn’t equal everywhere. It’s much stronger on
the side of the Moon that is closer to us.

157
 Rio de Janeiro at dusk

The distance of the Roche Limit depends on the size,

mass and density of the two objects. For instance,
the Sun rips up comets that come within 1.3 million
km (0.8 million mi) of it. The Earth will tear apart
an average-sized comet from approximately 18,000
km (11,185 mi) away. For the Moon, the Roche limit
would be 9,500 km (5,900 mi).

158
 Quito by day

The rings we might get from something the size of

the Moon would be about 5,000 km (3,100 mi) wide
and around 9.5 m (31 ft) thick.

159
 Singapore by night

But unlike Saturn’s icy rings, ours would be made

of nothing but rock. The Earth is just too close to
the Sun to keep the debris iced.

160
 Sydney at dusk

Looking out at the sky, you’d be able to see these

rings from Earth at all times. Because of the bright-
ness of the rings, the Moon wouldn’t seem as bright
anymore. That is if we still had the Moon. If the
Moon crumbled up and became our rings, well,
there’d be nothing else up there to look at. And
there would be some other consequences.

161
 Istanbul by night

The rings suddenly hugging Earth would disrupt the

internal navigation systems of some animals. If not
enough direct sunlight was making it through the
rings, they would also affect photosynthesis and our
oxygen supply.

162
 Guatemala

In the shadow of the rings, with no contact from the

Sun’s rays, the temperature would get so cold that it
would make the shadowed areas of the Earth almost
uninhabitable.

163
 Iceland

Communications satellites, generally placed around

the Earth’s equator, would find themselves right
in the middle of a rock storm. We’d need to find
another way to keep the internet alive if we want to
keep posting selfies on a ringed Earth.

164
 New Zealand

We’d be better off in a scenario where the Earth

has always been like this. Provided we didn’t lose
sunlight and oxygen, we’d evolve just fine. But we’d
have to develop other means of communication
since we wouldn’t be able to send satellites into an
orbit full of rocks.

165
 Shadows over Australia

Space would never become our final frontier. The

rocky rings around the planet would be a sort of
orbital barbed wire fence keeping us all grounded.
And, just like the rings of Saturn, Earth’s rings
wouldn’t last forever. One day they’d start to feel
their age and drop from the sky.

Make sure to wear a helmet and look up at the

falling sky. If the multiverse is real, there might
be a ringed Earth somewhere out there, with people
on it wondering what it’d be like to live on a planet
with no rings.

166
***

167
 Thirty

WHAT IF WE BUILT CITIES

ON THE MOON?

I f you could, would you live on the Moon? Not

as one of the courageous early settlers, but as
a citizen of a fully-functioning Moon city. What
would they be built out of?

How different would your everyday life be? Why

would they be important?

In 2005, a design called the Shackleton Dome caused

a thrill in the aerospace industry. This 40 kilometers
(25 miles) in diameter and 1,524 meters (5,000 feet)
high glass dome would arch over the Shackleton
Crater on the Moon, housing the first Moon city.

168
How viable was this design? Domes are the strongest
structural object and the most efficient shape to hold
air pressure, so building domes to protect people
from the hazards of space is a good idea.

But smaller interconnected domes, based on the

Shackleton Dome, would be quicker and cheaper
to build. They would be made of glass and titanium
and anchored to bedrock, allowing Moon cities to
thrive inside.

The cities themselves would look ultra-modern.

And not because of any stylistic taste, but because
aluminum and silicon, the main component of glass,
are the elements found in anorthite.

Anorthite is a mineral found on the Moon and would

be an important local resource for construction.
With so much of it in the surrounding landscape,
it would be foolish not to use it liberally.

Another popular construction material used in this

futuristic city would be a concrete-like geopolymer
created from two additional, readily available ma-
terials. Moon dirt and your pee. Yes, your Moon
house would be made from urine.

169
Surely there’s a stellar potty joke to be made here,
but let’s just carry on. What would life be like in
these futuristic cities?

Well, you wouldn’t experience normal days and

nights anymore. One lunar day is 29 Earth days,
which means there are two weeks of darkness and
two weeks of light.

But because cities would be built around the Moon’s

poles, you would only have to experience four
consecutive Earth days of darkness at a time. Your
diet would also change. Due to finite resources and
limited space, Moon cities wouldn’t raise animals
for food production, so your diet would be mainly
plant-based.

You might have the option of eating fish, but any

other meat would have to come frozen from Earth,
so that wouldn’t be very practical. The Moon’s major
industry would be mining and exporting helium-3,
a renewable source of energy, and other materials.

You’d probably have a career as a scientist, engineer,

or miner. As the Earth continues to use up its
precious resources, the demand for helium-3 would
grow.
170
Helium-3 is an efficient fuel source in fusion reac-
tors and sells for roughly $40,000 U.S. dollars per
ounce. Just 22700 kilograms (25 tons) of it would
power the entire United States for a year. While rare
on Earth, it’s found in abundance on the Moon.

This export, combined with space exploration and

Moon tourism, would bring a lot of wealth to Moon
cities and help repay the expensive price tag of initial
settlement and construction. NASA estimates it
would take $10 billion to build a settlement on the
Moon, with an extra $2 billion per year in ongoing
costs.

Building cities on the Moon would have to be an

international combination of corporate and govern-
ment partnerships. Currently, treaties prevent any
one country from owning the Moon.

If a single country built a metropolis on the Moon,

it could be seen as a violation of those treaties. With
no single country or nation, the citizens of Moon
cities would probably try and form their own self-
governing nation once they became self-sufficient.

While domed Moon centers sound like science

fiction, they are really in our distant future. Settling
171
the Moon would open up opportunities for science,
engineering, new ways of thinking, and further
space exploration. It would be a necessity to create
a viable space base to branch out to other parts of
our Universe.

But before we could construct immense cities on the

Moon, we would first have to build initial, smaller
colonies, which involve their own galactic hurdles.

CITIES ON THE MOON

***

172
 Thirty-One

WHAT IF WE SENT OUR

TRASH INTO THE SUN?

W elcome to your new landfill: a giant ball

of burning gas that we call the Sun. With
surface temperatures of 5500°C (9,940°F), it could
obliterate any type of trash we throw at it, from
pesky plastics to nuclear waste. And with everything
we’re launching into space these days, surely it
wouldn’t be too hard to send a little trash to the
Sun.

But how much would it cost? What dangers would

be involved? And why would it be easier to send a
rocket right out of our solar system than it would
be to get anything to the Sun?

173
Our planet is filling up with garbage. At the rate
we’re going, by 2050 we’ll be dealing with 12 billion
metric tons of plastic sitting in landfills — that’s
35,000 times the weight of the Empire State Build-
ing! Sure it’d be nice to put it all in some giant
rockets and blast it off, but there would be some
serious risks involved. What would happen if there
was an accident while a rocket was in the Earth’s
atmosphere and all our trash and nuclear waste came
raining back down on us?

The Sun is about 150 million km (93 million miles)

away from Earth, so getting any trash there would
be extremely expensive. To put it in perspective,
the Ariane 5, a modern European rocket, has a
payload capacity of 7, 000 kg (15,432 lbs) and costs
approximately $200 million to launch into orbit.

So to get all of the planet’s garbage headed off

towards the Sun would take 168 million of these
rockets, just to remove our trash for one year! The
price tag would be $33 trillion. And that’s just the
cost of getting the rockets into orbit around the
Earth. If we wanted to get them from Earth’s orbit
to the Sun, it would require ten times more fuel!

174
Ok, we get it. It would cost a lot of money, but that’s
just the beginning of our problems. You see, Earth
moves around the Sun at 30 km/s (67,000 mph), in
a direction that is basically always sideways relative
to the Sun. If you were to launch a rocket from
Earth straight towards the Sun, it wouldn’t lose that
sideways speed, and so it would miss its target.

The only way we’d be able to get that rocket right

into the Sun would be if we could cancel out all that
sideways motion by slowing down the rocket by 30
km/s (67,000 mph). How tricky would that be? Well,
put it this way, if we could speed up the rocket by
12 km/s, it would have enough momentum to get
out of our Solar System.

Let’s simplify that a bit. To crash into the Sun, lose

30 km/s. To get out of the Milky Way, gain 12 km/s.
For the sake of efficiency and fuel costs, it’s better
to go to the outer Solar System, where the rocket’s
speed would be lower, then use a little booster juice
to fire the engines enough that the rocket and its
load of waste would fall into the Sun.

Even if we were able to figure this all out, and

successfully deliver our garbage rocket directly to
the Sun, it probably wouldn’t be worth all the risks
175
involved.” What risks?” you ask. Well, for starters
let’s say we’ve got our first rocket all loaded up with
a bunch of nuclear waste, and just as it’s about to
take off, it explodes on the launchpad. Now we’ve
got some fun nuclear fallout to deal with.

Maybe we’re a little luckier, and the rocket launch

itself is successful, but it explodes once it’s in orbit.

The best-case scenario here is that we add a ton of

debris to the already growing problem of space junk
circling the Earth. The worst-case scenario is that
our exploding rocket packed with thousands of tons
of household trash and spent nuclear fuel comes
crashing back down on us.

Either way, it’s not good, and this whole operation

really doesn’t seem worth it. Maybe instead of
looking for these outlandish solutions, we should
just, you know, stop producing so much waste…

176
WHAT IF WE SENT OUR TRASH INTO THE SUN?

***

177
 Thirty-Two

WHAT IF A TURKEY HIT

EARTH AT THE SPEED OF
LIGHT?

D eep frying a turkey can oftentimes be incredi-

bly dangerous. So why don’t we try a different
cooking method? Let’s send our turkey up into
space, and have it come for Earth while moving at
the speed of light. Do you think this would be any
safer?

How fast is the speed of light? Could a turkey move

this fast damage the Earth? And what would happen
once it reaches our atmosphere?

The speed of light is nearly 300,000 km per

sec(186,282 mi per sec). If an object were going
178
this fast, it could circle the Earth 7.5 times in just a
single second. So what would happen if we made a
turkey move this fast, and then hurled it toward our
planet?

Before we go any further, we should let you know

that it’s impossible for an object to move at the speed
of light. That’s because the faster an object moves,
the more its mass increases, and its length contracts.
In other words, when our turkey is moving at the
speed of light, it would have an infinite mass and a
length of zero, which is impossible.

But we won’t let our fun stop there. Instead, we’re

going to have our turkey move at 99.99% of the
speed of light. Heh, suck on that, Einstein. And now,
moving at this speed in space, the turkey is coming
for Earth. But before it even hits our planet, we’d
notice some of the effects long before it impacts.

179
 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT TURKEY

As the turkey is moving through the Earth’s at-

mosphere, it would start to slam into atmospheric
particles. Since it’s moving at such a
high speed, the turkey would begin to get ripped
apart. If you wanted to look up to the sky, you’d
see bright explosions in our atmosphere. But the
volume of the explosions would probably make you
instinctively run for cover and hide.

This might not sound all that terrible, but it would

still cause massive destruction on Earth’s surface.
The closest modern equivalent to something like
this would be the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013. That
meteor exploded at a height of 23.3 km (76,000
ft). And when that happened, it resulted in 1,000
180
people getting injured and huge amounts of property
damage.

Our turkey, moving at the speed of light, would be

equal to 40,000 of those meteors hitting Earth. And
these explosions wouldn’t happen all at once but
sporadically as it moves through the atmosphere.
As they happened, their shockwaves would cause
buildings and windows to be completely destroyed.

And if this were to happen, it would be the Earth’s

best-case scenario. That’s because this turkey hasn’t
even hit the planet yet. But if it did come right for
us, then the results would be even worse. Due to
all the energy behind it, if the turkey hit New York
City at 99.99% of the speed of light, it would be like
dropping 400 nuclear bombs.

This would completely destroy the city, not to

mention parts of the planet itself. The impact from
this massive explosion could destroy the Earth’s
crust, causing magma to spew up and fill the streets.
Massive fires would start, and millions of people
would die. But ground zero, wouldn’t be the only
place heavily affected.

181
An impact on Earth-like this could cause earth-
quakes and fires all across North America. The en-
tire half of the world would be completely destroyed,
just from a harmless turkey. So the speed of light
can be pretty dangerous. But what might happen if
you rode your bike at this speed?

WHAT IF A TURKEY HIT EARTH AT THE SPEED

OF LIGHT?

***

182
 Thirty-Three

WHAT IF WE COOLED THE

EARTH WITH SOLAR POWER?

W hy do solar panels look so different these

days? And why have we started installing
them on top of mountains, using them to pave our
roads, and putting them in the middle of our oceans?

Well, if we cover enough of our planet in solar panels,

we’ll have a good chance of halting the planet’s rising
temperature, and maybe even cooling it a couple of
degrees. But how would that work?

Could we use the panels to reflect the Sun’s heat

into space? How many solar panels would it take to
power everything on the Earth? And why could a
solar-powered planet be bad for the environment?
183
One way we could cool the planet is through some-
thing known as the albedo effect. Albedo refers
to the amount of light that’s reflected off a surface
without being absorbed.
For instance, if all of the Earth were covered in
ice, the albedo would be around 0.84. This means
the Earth would reflect 84% of the sunlight that hits
it.

But if the entire Earth was covered by a forest

canopy, that number would be about 0.14. Only
14% would be reflected, meaning that most of the
sunlight would be absorbed. So, if we take a bunch
of reflective things, like solar panels, and line the
Earth with them, the renewable energy they produce
would help to cool the Earth. They’d also reflect a
lot of heat away.

184
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT SOLAR
ENERGY
185
And then our planet would become cooler in no
time, right? Not exactly.
Instead of our solar panels cooling the Earth, it
could make things hotter instead. Although solar
panels might look super-reflective to us, they’d do a
pretty bad job of reflecting sunlight into space.

Because solar panels are so dark, they absorb sun-

light. This would increase Earth’s ground tempera-
tures. Plus, according to the laws of thermodynam-
ics, we’d be creating even more heat every time our
solar panels converted solar energy into electricity.
So, let’s scratch that whole albedo idea.

If we’re going to cool the Earth with solar panels,

it’ll have to be by using them to completely replace
fossil fuels, like oil, gas, and coal. If we stop using
fossil fuels, we won’t produce as much greenhouse
gas. Then we’ll stop heating our planet so much.
So how many solar panels would we need to power
everything on Earth? If we’re talking about a typical
350W solar panel, it will take about 51.4 billion
of them. Imagine a solar power plant that covers
299,467 square km (115,625 square mi). That would
about the size of the U.S. state of Arizona.

To build this massive project, lots of people would

186
need to manufacture the solar panels, install them,
and maintain them. But it shouldn’t be hard to find
a willing workforce. After all, there will be a lot of
former fossils fuel industry employees looking for
jobs.

So all we’d have to do is retrain them, and hope

they don’t complain too much. We’d be dealing
with plenty of other complaints about this project.
People would complain about the noise during
construction, the glare from the panels themselves,
and the increased traffic from panel maintenance
vehicles in residential areas.

Plus, people might be upset about decreasing prop-

erty values, especially if their views change from
enjoying a beautiful landscape to a massive solar
farm. For a large-scale solar project like this, another
issue would be land use. Using land for the solar
farm would mean a potential loss of habitat.

And, unlike wind farms, solar farms can’t share

the land with agriculture. But perhaps the most
critical issue would be producing the solar panels.
Manufacturing over 51 billion solar panels would
create harmful emissions. To make them, we’d need
to use chemicals, including sodium hydroxide and
hydrofluoric acid. Making the panels would emit
187
greenhouse gases and create waste.

So, if we try to cool down the Earth using solar

panels, we might end up creating more of the
emissions that heated our planet in the first place.
Perhaps we need to stop looking for one solution to
our planet’s heating problem.

WHAT IF WE COOLED THE EARTH WITH SOLAR

POWER?

***

188
 Thirty-Four

WHAT IF WE COULD SEE

THROUGH A BLACK HOLE?

T his star is about to transform into a black hole.

And we’re about to travel inside it to see what’s
on the other side. The only problem is that we’ll
never be able to report our findings back to Earth.

Because once you go inside a black hole, there’s no

coming back. So maybe there’s a better way to find
out what’s on the other side.

Could we use a special telescope? How would light

behave inside a black hole? And why could the first
image of a black hole provide all the answers?

Everything that we can see in the world around us is

189
based on light entering our eyes. If an object doesn’t
emit or reflect light, then our eyes can’t see it. So
how are we supposed to see through to the other
side of a black hole?

It’s like the darkest thing we’ve ever discovered. Not

only does it not emit its own light, but it also sucks
up any light that comes near it. But, according to
planetary scientist Joshua Colwell, seeing through a
black hole is not impossible.

In fact, we’ve already done it. And all it took was a

little bending of space and time.
Let’s take a look at the first real image of a black
hole. Even in this low-quality picture, you can see
through to the other side if you look close enough.
Let’s enhance. If you want to see what’s going on on
the other side of a black hole, the most crucial place
to look at is this thin ring at its center.

190
 IMAGINARY IMAGE OF A BLACK HOLE

This is called photon orbit. It’s a ring made up of

light particles called photons that have orbited the
black hole two, three, or even more times before
escaping. Photons can come closer to the black hole
than ordinary matter because they are massless. And
the crazy thing is that the photons we see in this
ring don’t just come from the sides of the black hole.
They also come from behind it. This is because the
black hole can warp space and time to such a degree
that some of the light orbits the black hole in a full
circle.
Let me explain.

Imagine a star in space that, from our perspective, is

191
obscured by a black hole. The star sends out light in
all directions. Some of this light would usually reach
our eyes on Earth, and some would just disappear
in other directions. But in this case, the light that
is headed straight for us would get sucked in by the
black hole and disappear forever.
And some of the light that normally wouldn’t have
reached us will get redirected by the black hole. This
light would become a part of the photon orbit and
eventually, make its way to our eyes on Earth. The
light appears to come from the gaseous rim around
the black hole, but it’s coming from behind it.

Now, I know this isn’t exactly what you were hoping

for when you imagined seeing through a black hole.
You want to know what it looks like inside, right?
Well, to do that, we would need to travel past the
event horizon, which is essentially the edge of a
black hole. It’s the point from which nothing can
escape, not matter or light.

So yeah we won’t be able to report our findings

back to Earth, but maybe we just want to see it for
ourselves anyway. After we pass the event horizon,
we’ll arrive at something called a singularity. It can
be described as a point in space where mass has
infinite density. Everything that goes into a black
192
hole will end up here, including all the light it’s
sucked up.

Because you’ll be inside the black hole with the light,

you will be able to see it, but its direction will be all
mixed up. You would probably just see a uniform
glow if you look away from the singularity and
darkness if you look towards it.

And, in true “What If” fashion, that would be the last

thing you’d ever see. So if you don’t want to make
that sacrifice, but you still want to learn more about
the inside of a black hole, then check out this week’s
“What If Discussed” podcast.

193
WHAT IF WE COULD SEE THROUGH A BLACK
HOLE?

***

194
 Thirty-Five

WHAT IF TARDIGRADES
WERE THE SIZE OF HUMANS?

T hey can endure the cold reaches of space. Go

without food or water for up to 30 years. And
are nearly indestructible. But there, like, really tiny.
So, there’s not a whole lot we can do with them.

However. What if tardigrades were the size of

humans? How could we use them? Would we live
in harmony? Or are we no longer top of the food
chain?

This is a tardigrade. It kind of looks like an eight-

legged bear doesn’t it? Well, an eight-legged bear
from your nightmares is more accurate.

195
While only measuring in at 1.2 millimeters (0.05
inches) max, these little guys are tough as nails.
Tardigrades are classified as extremophiles. This
means that they can roll with the punches in what-
ever extreme environment they call home. They
can go 30 years without food or water, thrive in
an absolute zero or above boiling temperature, and
survive in pressures six times that of our ocean’s
deepest trenches.

These teeny tanks can thank a unique protein for

their resiliency, known as Dsup, which is short for
“damage suppressor”. So, what would life be like if
tardigrades had a growth spurt?

Well, picture this. You’ve got a nice little pond

in your backyard. It’s quaint, relaxing, and really
brings the whole yard together. Well, freshwater
sediments like your pond may have as many as
25,000 tardigrades per liter or almost 100,000 of
them per gallon.

But now, things aren’t as cozy. Imagine taking a look

out your window and seeing 25,000 human-sized
tardigrades dogpiled in your backyard.
”
Our planet would be swamped with giant tardi-
196
grades. Okay, there’s got to be a plus side to this.
Maybe we could use them for something?

What if you rounded up a posse and went hunting

for tardigrade? Could we use their hard outer hides
to create protective wear and get some of that sweet,
sweet Dsup for ourselves?
Tardigrades are encased in a rugged, flexible
cuticle. Imagine a cow with armor similar to the
exoskeletons of grasshoppers.

Maybe the military could use this pliable yet sturdy

material for some heavy-duty tardigrade armor?
Those are some cool ideas, but remember what I
said about them being extremophiles? Yeah, they’re
not going down that easy.

197
 TARDIGRADES ARE ALSO CALLED WATER
BEARS

They don’t even care about things that would give

humans a run for their money. Take droughts for
example.

A dry environment might trigger a tardigrade to go

into a cryptobiosis state. The tardigrade will squeeze
all the water out of its body, retract its head and
limbs, roll up into a little ball, and become dormant.
This is known as a “tun”.

When in this form, the tardigrade’s metabolism

slows to 0.01% of the normal rate. And it can
maintain this halted state for decades until it again
198
comes into contact with water.

So, now that they’re asleep, you might be thinking

it’s the perfect time to attack. Well, we wouldn’t
recommend it. A giant, angry tardigrade has eight
legs and four to six claws on each paw. Not to
mention their dagger-like teeth that also make them
ferocious killers.

199
 FACTS ABOUT TARDIGRADES

Now thankfully, we don’t have to worry about our

planet being overrun by human-sized tardigrades,
but that doesn’t mean we can’t still learn from them.
Because they are so resilient, we could gain a thing or
two from these tiny titans. Such as how to develop
more resilient crops by using their valuable Dsup
protein.

200
I guess we could count ourselves lucky that if tardi-
grades were the size of humans, they’d be like big,
lumbering cows. So at least they wouldn’t be flying
around us, dive-bombing our heads. Did you hear
that? It kind of sounds like a bat.

***

201
 Thirty-Six

WHAT IF HUMANS COULD

FLY?

H ow would your body change? How would

you avoid mid-air collisions? Would cars and
planes still exist?

I want to make it clear that when I talk about flying,

I mean real flying. No hoverboards, or jetpacks, or
personal aircraft. But real flight, controlled by wings.
Your wings.

And it’s not just you, the entire human race has
wings. Everyone can fly. That is if they want to.

Flying is an energy-intensive activity. We’d still

choose to walk, bike, and drive sometimes. And
202
some people simply won’t have the necessary
strength or body weight to take off.

But let’s assume that instead of driving to work, you

like to fly. It’s great exercise, and there’s no better
way to start your day. But your morning routine
would need to change. How?

Hopefully, you’re a morning person because taking

care of wings is no small task. You’d want to groom
your wings, making sure no feathers are damaged
or out of place.

And you’ll have a lot of feathers. One of the reasons

birds can fly is because their wingspan is balanced
with their body size. For humans, this means we’d
need an average wingspan of 6.7 m (23 ft).

This would vary depending on your height and

weight. But still, there would be a lot more of you to
take care of. After you’ve groomed yourself, you’d
need to eat a huge breakfast.

There’s no skipping this meal if you want to fly. It

takes an extreme amount of energy to stay in the air.
So you’d need to be eating like an athlete because
203
you’re going to be burning through tons of calories
on your way to work.

But a large wingspan and extra calories aren’t all

you’d need to be able to fly. Like a bird, you’d need
some serious chest strength. A hummingbird’s chest
muscles make up 20% of its total mass.

For you to have the same sort of muscular strength,

your chest would have to be twice the size of a pro
bodybuilder. And you’d need to make another major
change. To create the necessary balance between
wingspan, body weight, and wing strength, your
bones would need to be stronger and lighter.

One thing that would help is if your clavicles, which

make up your collarbone, were fused to create a
wishbone. You’d look a lot different than you do
now. And because of all that muscle, your next step
would be to stretch.

Once you’re warmed up, you’d head to the nearest

launch pad. Like Argentavis magnificens, your
wings would be too large to flap. This giant bird
lived 6 million years ago and had a similar height
and weight to an adult human.

204
To get airborne, it had to run downhill into a
headwind, then take off, and glide. You’d have to
do something similar. Along with train stops or bus
stops, your transportation centers would also have
large flying ramps.

Now, the moment you’ve been preparing for, flight.

As wind passes over your wings, it creates lift. As
long as the lift is stronger than gravity, you’ll stay
in the air. The heavier you are, the larger the force
of gravity. So heavier people must generate a larger
lift.

Friction and turbulence will slow you down, mean-

ing less wind and less lift. You’ll need to counter
this friction by flapping your wings. This creates
thrust. Lift and thrust are the physical forces that
allow birds, and now you, to fly.

It’s a crowded day up in the skies, so you need to

be constantly aware of your surroundings. Flying
accidents do happen, and from this height, they’re
usually fatal. Birds have a faster nervous system than
humans, which is why they rarely collide. But you’d
have to use a mobile computer to help alert you of
oncoming traffic.

205
The traffic laws in the air would differ from those
on the ground. You’re not a hummingbird, so you
can’t stop in midair. Instead, you’d have to take a
pre-approved flight path, and fly at a specific speed.
As long as everyone is flying at the same pace along
the same paths, you should be safe.

Flying would be a great alternative to driving for

your daily commute. A single car emits around 3,000
kg (6,613 lb) of carbon dioxide a year. If people were
able to fly instead of drive, we’d reduce the amount
of greenhouse gas released from transportation.
This would create cleaner skies and better air.

***

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 Thirty-Seven

WHAT IF WE USED THE FULL

CAPACITY OF OUR BRAINS?

Y ou can do anything! Paint a masterpiece in a

minute, learn every language in an hour, build
a multi-billion dollar company overnight, and rule
the world by tomorrow!

So what’s holding you back? Why aren’t you doing

what you want? Didn’t hear enough Mozart as a
baby? Didn’t eat enough veggies growing up? Or
is it because you’re not using your brain at its full
potential? Want to know how you can?

The brain, to say the least, is very complex. We’ve

studied it for centuries, and we’re still learning more
of its secrets today. But be careful! The search for
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facts can sometimes lead to fiction. To be smarter,
your brain needs to be bigger – False

For example, here’s your brain next to a whale’s.

Guess who’s smarter… Guess who’s body needs
more processing power… Your brain is smaller than
a whale’s because your body is smaller. However,
your brain is structured in a way that enables you to
survive, and succeed. But after all that, would you
believe that humans only use 10% of their brains?

Let’s make it 100%.

We’ve seen what really smart people can do. They

inspire us through art, music, and literature; they
change the odds in sports; they come up with tools to
make our lives easier; and they help organize society
as a whole to make us all more powerful – for better
or for worse.

With access to your brain’s full capacity, you’re

limitless. So what do you do?
First thing’s first, you finally get to solve the
Rubik’s cube that’s been collecting dust on your shelf.
Call up your smartest friend, and challenge them to
a game of chess. Checkmate in two moves. Relish
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 PARTS OF HUMAN BRAIN

When you’re done being smarty pants, you’ll be

looking for a real challenge. Since being smart
means you won’t be as stimulated by the things that
keep us simpletons happy… So what’s your interest?
Art? Science? Technology?

When you’re limitless, you don’t have to choose.

Okay, back up. Limitless? What happens to your
body when you’re dedicating all your brain’s energy
to a creation, a cure, or a patent?

Your lungs breathing, your heart beating, your food

digesting, and your blood circulating – that’s all your
brain. Even if you could access 100% of your brain’s
capacity, you couldn’t use it. You would be limited
by your body’s survival needs.
209
Remember when we asked, would you believe that
after all that, humans only use 10% of their brains?
Did you believe it?

The 10% thing is a myth, and it probably comes from

simple confusion. Your brain is 10% neurons, and
90% glial cells. There are different types of neurons
that take care of different functions, but in general,
your neurons enable you to process and transmit
information, while your glial cells surround your
neurons, providing them with support and insula-
tion.

And you know what? All human brains share the

same design. Your brain has just as many neurons
as Albert Einstein’s did! So how can you be smarter?
Treat your brain like a muscle. Stimulate it! Try
new things, take on challenges, and get enough rest!
Maintain healthy habits; that’s the smart thing to do
and, of course, it’s a no-brainer!

***

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 Thirty-Eight

WHAT IF OUR BODIES KEPT

EVOLVING?

W hat will humans look like in 10,000 years?

What about 1 million years from now?
Will we look like this guy? Eh, probably not. But
we’ll definitely look different than we do now.

What parts of our body would evolve? How long

would evolving our bodies take? And who would
win the survival of the fittest?

It took roughly 6 million years for humans to

become what we are today. And modern humans
have only been around for about 12,000 of them.

And even in that short period of time, humans have

211
evolved slightly. We’ve become about 10 cm (4
in.) taller, and now we can eat dairy foods after
childhood. So if those things can happen in 12,000
years, where would we be in hundreds of thousands
of years in the future?

First, we should probably figure out exactly what

evolution is. Evolution is all about changes in the
genetic makeup that happen to a species over time.

Species with more advantageous traits will tend to

have more offspring. So those genetic traits will
tend to carry on to later generations. For example,
giraffes with longer necks who can reach more food
will be able to survive better than giraffes with short
necks.

And they’ll be able to have more babies, who will

likely have longer necks, just like their parents. And
as time goes on, the short-necked giraffes will die
out, and the long-necked giraffes are the only ones
left. And that’s why all our giraffes have long necks
today.

So how does this apply to humans exactly? Well,

evolution, in this sense, is actually very hard to
predict. In the world we live in, we don’t need to
212
worry about the survival of the fittest. Technology
has effectively canceled a lot of that.

You no longer need to worry about being the fastest

or the strongest. This isn’t 100,000 years ago when
you had to fight for your food. Things like houses
to live in, and clean running water, make surviving
so much easier.

You never think to yourself, “how am I going to

survive today,” but that’s something our ancestors
had to worry about constantly. So it’s not guaran-
teed that 1 million years from now, humans will be
stronger, faster, and bigger than ever before.

After all, having children today is generally decided

by culture and personal choice, rather than the need
for our species to survive. Our future will be decided
by the traits of people who have children, and how
many children they have. If people who are naturally
overweight and have health problems are the only
ones having kids over the next million years, then
that’s how the human race will end up.

But we might not need to worry about any of these

natural occurrences. Instead, we could become
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completely fused with technology before any of this
happens. Cybernetic arms, brain chips, and laser
eyes could all become possibilities.

Not only that, but we also might be able to alter a

baby’s genes before they’re born, completely getting
rid of evolution altogether. This would allow us to
get rid of diseases and any other genetic traits that
might harm us.

But if we didn’t have this luxury, and we had to

evolve the old-fashioned way, there are a few things
that might happen: we just need to look at how
modern humans have evolved in the past 12,000
years. We know we’ve been getting taller, most
likely due to nutrition, and that our brains have been
getting smaller.

But don’t worry, we haven’t been getting dumber,

our brains are actually becoming more efficient. We
also might become more immune to various diseases
since we’ve conquered lactose in the past 12,000
years.

So in a million years, we might be incredibly tall

humans with tiny heads. Does that remind you of
anything?
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 At the end of the day, human evolution is incred-
ibly difficult to predict. That’s because, evolution
is primarily based on our environment, and who
knows what might have happened to the Earth in
the next million years?

We might need to evolve to survive fires, as the

planet will become so incredibly hot. Huh, I wonder
what that would be like?
Or, in the next million years, we might live on
other planets, like Mars. Humans would evolve to
look completely different there, as they’d be living
in entirely different conditions than here on Earth.
And I wonder what living on the red planet would
be like?

***

215
 Thirty-Nine

WHAT IF YOU WERE

SWALLOWED BY AN
ANACONDA?

T hey’re the largest snakes on Earth, roaming the

Amazon. They’ve eaten goats, deer, and even
crocodiles.

So what would happen if an anaconda tried to eat

you? Can an anaconda really swallow a human?

How long would you be traveling through the

snake’s body? And has something like this happened
before?

Green anacondas grow up to 9 m in length (30 ft)

and can weigh as much as 225 kg (500 lbs). Believe it
216
or not, in 2014 someone was actually dumb enough
to attempt this.

He was wearing a large, bulky suit covered in pig’s

blood. The anaconda worked for an hour, wrapping
its mouth around the head of the suit, but it was
ultimately unsucessful in swallowing the human
whole.

But if it had been successful, how would an anaconda

be able to eat a full-sized adult?
So you happen to be wandering in the Amazon
rain forest and stumble upon one of these giant
anacondas. You might think you’d be a tasty meal to
them, as a small meal for an anaconda is about 18kg
(40 pounds).

If they were to gobble you up, it would keep them

satisfied for weeks! But a meal over 45 kg (100 lbs)
– like you – might not be what an anaconda is most
interested in.

Due to how massive you are, not to mention being

taller and broader than most animals it eats, you
would take too long to consume. This would leave
the anaconda vulnerable to predators for weeks, if
not months until it finishes digesting you.
217
 But let’s say it did want to eat you. What would
happen then?

Before an anaconda swallows you, it would kill you

first. An anaconda is a constrictor snake and kills
by wrapping its body all around its prey and quickly
crushing them to death with over 9,000 pounds of
pressure.

It would be a pretty quick end for you, but we know

that’s not how this show works. So, let’s assume you
survive this, and we get to see the entire process.
The anaconda would then widen its jaw to swallow
you whole.

You won’t have to worry about it chewing you up

into little bits since it only has fangs used for holding
its prey. And luckily, as opposed to other snakes, the
anaconda isn’t venomous, so its fans won’t poison
and paralyze you. But something you will find in
the anaconda’s mouth is lots and lots of saliva.

218
 QUICK FACTS ABOUT ANACONDA

This will be used to moisten you, so it’s easier for

the anaconda to slide you down their gullet. You’d
then be moving down the snake’s esophagus.

219
As happens in many other animals, the muscles in
the esophagus will push you down the snake’s body.
The anaconda also has the ability to move, and bend
its ribs to crush you even further and push you down
to its stomach.

And now, you’re in the anaconda’s stomach. Don’t

worry, we’re still keeping you alive to make this more
fun.

The anaconda’s stomach produces powerful acids

and stomach enzymes that will dissolve your skin,
and then, eventually, your bones. How fast do these
acids work, exactly?

Well, an anaconda once dissolved an alligator’s skin

in just three days. So your squishy and fleshy skin
would disappear pretty quickly.

Your body would break down even further as you

move through the snake’s small intestine. That’s due
to the liver and pancreas secreting even stronger
enzymes.

Everything besides your hair and your nails will be

digested at this point. And even if you were wearing
some magical suit that protected you from the acid
220
and everything else, it would take you a couple of
weeks before you were unceremoniously pooped
out. So, it’s likely you’d starve.

Although something like this is incredibly unlikely,

just leave anacondas alone. After all, they aren’t
interested in eating you in most cases, as you’re just
too big.
They’re really just trying to defend themselves.
Plus, you’d die pretty much instantly if you tried to
mess with one of these things.

***

221
 Forty

WHAT IF YOU STOPPED

SLEEPING?

H ow long could this sleepless “forever” last?

Could you even be productive without
recharging every night? When would your friends
start telling you to get some rest? And what exactly
would happen to your body?

How often have you needed just a few more hours

to finish a project, to get ready for a date, or to enjoy
your day off? If you took sleep out of your daily
routine, you’d have all 24 hours of the day to do
everything you never had time for. What have you
got to lose?

222
That’s Some Next-Level Studying:

In 1964, an American student set the new doc-

umented record for staying awake without any
stimulants.

He didn’t sleep for 11 days. Midterms must’ve been

really stressful back in those days. But you, YOU
can do better than that, right? Sure!

Other people have been reported to go for long

periods without sleep. A man named Thái Ngọc
claimed to go forty-five years without sleeping,
although he also said he began to feel like a plant
going without water due to his insomnia.

223
Thai Ngoc says he hasn’t slept for more than 41 years.

Ngoc reported using sleeping pills and other reme-

dies in an attempt to fix his condition but said that
nothing work.

Al Herpin, an American man known as the ‘Man

Who Never Slept’, claimed to have never slept in his
lifetime. Herpin also allegedly lived to the age of
ninety-four – he had given conflicting birth dates in
his lifetime.

Ngoc, Herpin, and other related people may actually

be a case of sleep state misperception, or people
who believe themselves to be awake when they are
actually sleeping.

224
Al Herpin claims to have a rare form of insomnia that
causes him to be unable to sleep.

Other reports claiming to beat Randy Gardner (the

high school student who lasted eleven days) have
been recorded in the decades since, but Gardner’s
record was documented thoroughly and scientif-
ically – other reports may have been marred by
microsleeps unnoticed by the person making the
attempt.

Turns out, there are plenty of good reasons to sleep.

“The average person spends one-third of their life
225
lying in bed, eyes shut, snoring away. Sounds like
a waste of valuable time. But not for your body.”
While you sleep, your body releases hormones and
repairs tissues, replacing your old cells with new
ones.

Let’s start with your body. While you sleep, your

body releases hormones and repairs tissues, replac-
ing your old cells with new ones.

If you worked out that day, you need good sleep

to let your muscles grow and your fat burn. So
what happens if you don’t sleep? Not much at first.
After just 24 hours you’d feel completely fine. In
fact, you’d feel better than “fine”. That’s because
sleeplessness stimulates the mesolimbic pathway in
your brain.

This pathway would release dopamine – and you’d

feel happy and full of energy. But don’t be fooled by
all that happiness – it’s not going to last long. Soon
after reaching the 24-hour mark, all your reactions
would slow down. Your brain would start to forget
what you were doing.

226
Meanwhile, your brain is on fire with activity. There
are different stages of sleep, where different kinds
of mental maintenance are performed. In some
stages of sleep, you’re regenerating neurons within
the cerebral cortex, while in other states you’re
busy forming new memories and generating new
synaptic connections.

227
Your brain performs maintenance while you sleep. For
example, the cerebral cortex regenerates neurons.

How long you spend in the first stage of the sleep

cycle depends upon how long you’ve been awake
since your last dose. The longer you’ve been awake,
the longer the brain needs to stay in the first stage
of sleep, tidying up the physical brain-space. Once
that’s done, you go into that delicious stage they call
REM sleep.
228
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is where areas
of the brain used for learning and memory are
stimulated. It’s during REM that anything new
you’ve learned the previous day, any new skills and
whatnot, get locked into place.

Let’s see, what else? Your judgment would be

affected, the memory would be impaired, decision-
making would be slower and less effective, and hand-
eye coordination would go way down. You’d get
more emotional, your senses would be impaired,
and your attention would be worse.

Basically, you’d act drunk. And not a good drunk.

In fact, your cognitive impairment would be about

the same as someone with a 0.10 percent blood
alcohol level. How impaired is that? Well, it’s illegal
to drive most places with that amount of booze in
your system, so that tells you something.

This drunk-like behavior stems from your cerebral

cortex not acting the way it should because it’s gone
a day without sleep.

Outwardly, you’d appear to be drunk. Wait, where

were we? Right, now what about two days without
sleep? At that point, your body would start shutting
229
down. It would stop metabolizing glucose properly,
leaving you with no energy supply. You’d start
looking very pale – like a character from the Middle
Ages.

Your eyes would turn red, and then more bad news,
your wrinkles would become more visible.
After a day and a half, your head might start
buzzing like you were dehydrated, and you’d lose
some motivation. No biggie. You might also
start finding yourself working on autopilot and
realizing you don’t really remember what happened
for chunks of time. But hey, whatever, with a full 24
hours of life to live each day, you can afford to zone
out for a chunk here and there to…whatever. We
can hope that whatever you were doing or thinking
was fun, but even if it wasn’t, you won’t remember
it anyway, so…yeah. No biggie.

So what about two days without sleep? At this point,

your body would take a hint from your brain and
start shutting down too. It would stop metabolizing
glucose properly, leaving you with no energy supply.
You’d start looking very pale – like a character from
the Middle Ages. At around the 72-hour mark,
you’d start breaking down your own protein – your
muscles.

230
After two days of no sleep, those chunks of lost time
would get a bit more intrusive as the body begins
compensating by shutting down for what’s called
“microsleeps.” These are tiny little episodes that
last from half a second to half a minute where you
blackout, and are usually followed by a period of
disorientation. Your body is actually falling asleep
during these quick bursts of mental absenteeism,
and most of the time you won’t even notice. What-
ever you were doing before, you just pick it up where
you left off after the microsleep’s over.

These microsleeps are entirely out of your control

but are generally harmless. Unless, of course, you’re
driving or doing something else that could prove
dangerous. Even just standing up or walking could
be dangerous at this point since you’re likely to trip
or fall down. So it’s probably a good idea to avoid
any activity that could hurt you if you lose focus
doing it.

On day three, that’s when the real fun begins. Hallu-

cinations. Starved of REM sleep, your brain would
bring all your dreams — and nightmares — to life.
Again, while mostly harmless, these hallucinations
could, in the wrong place at the wrong time, prove
hazardous.

231
With enough sleep deprivation, hallucinations begin.

232
The Brain, The Brain, The Center of the Chain:

Remember we said you’d lack enough glucose to give

your brain the energy to function? You’d get some
of it from the amino acids released by your body’s
proteins. So say goodbye to all that muscle mass you
worked so hard to build up. Otherwise, your body
would keep using up all the energy sources it could
find – glucose leftovers, your muscles, fat, tissue…
The temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex is where
you process language and the things you hear, as
well as some other sensory information like pain.

Fully rested people have a very active temporal lobe

when they communicate because they’re listening
and thinking and aware of what’s happening around
them. But magnetic resonance imaging scans on
sleep-deprived subjects show no activity within this
region. It pretty much just shuts down. So they’re
really not keeping up with current events.

The frontal lobe, which is on top of the temporal

right at the front of the skull, also starts doing some
wonky things. The frontal lobe handles things like
speech and creative thinking. When you don’t sleep,
you have trouble thinking of imaginative words or
ideas and tend to talk using the same simple words
or clichés. And you use the same words or clichés.
233
And using the same words you might ramble and
forget what you were…um…what?

The worst part is that not only would you start

acting drunk, you’d also start being stupid. Stupider,
anyway. Because let’s face it, choosing to stop
sleeping wasn’t the smartest option, to begin with,
but we’re committed now, so let’s see this through.

Part of the frontal lobe, the prefrontal cortex, is

where you get your judgment, impulse control,
attention, and vision. With your frontal lobe on
a sleep-strike, you’d start reacting poorly to sudden
changes. Without the speed or creative abilities to
cope with making quick but logical decisions, you’d
start doing dumb things. And even if you did have
a decent idea, you’d lack the ability to act on it very
well.

But will you stop? Hell no, you’ve decided to stop

sleeping, and no amount of acting like a drunk idiot
is going to stop you.

No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn:

At around the 72-hour mark, your body will also

kick things up a notch. It’s pretty hungry by now,
and remember we said you’d be unable to metabolize
234
glucose? Well, guess what important organ in your
body really needs glucose to function? Yeah, your
brain. So just to keep itself working, your brain will
make your body start to eat itself from the inside
out. Starting you’re your muscles.

The amino acids stores in the proteins of your

muscles are a smorgasbord of goodness to your
starving brain, so you can say goodbye to all that
muscle mass you worked so hard to build up. On
the high side, your body would also start chowing
down on its fat stores, so there’s a bonus. Basically,
anywhere there’s energy stored up in your body’s
tissues is fair game at this point.

A lot of normal processes would scale back or shut

down because there just wouldn’t be the resources
to keep it all running. The body would decrease the
amount of growth hormone produced: not getting
enough sleep can literally stunt a person’s growth.
If you’re prone to seizures, especially epileptic ones,
you would be at a greater risk because of a reduced
threshold for seizures. And your body’s white blood
cell count would drop dramatically, as does the
activity of the few white blood cells you have. Bye-
bye immune system.

235
 A white blood cell sits above a red one. Lack of sleep
would cause your immune system to shut down and stop
producing white blood cells.

After about two weeks, your immune system would

be so weak, you could die from the common flu.
Eventually, three weeks after your last sleep, you’d
probably die from a heart attack.

If you’ve got a little extra muscle or fat on your

body, you could stay alive just a little bit longer, but
we don’t recommend that anyone try this at home
anyway.
If it seems like you’re always tired, make sure
you’re getting the prescribed 6-8 hours of sleep per
night…

236
Unless you’re one of those total weirdos who call
themselves “morning persons,” you’re among the
vast majority who usually find it pretty hard to drag
their sorry butts out of bed in the morning. Let’s
face it, waking up sucks. So how’s this for a fix: stop
sleeping altogether.

Just think about it: what if you just never went to

bed? You’d never have to worry about getting up
again. It’s the perfect crime! All you need to do is
figure out how to keep yourself awake forever, and
the possibilities would be endless, right?

This would be even better than having just a few

more hours to finish a project, or to get ready for a
date, or to enjoy your day off, this would be a whole
extra third of your life you can spend doing things
that really matter!

Screw sleep. It’s overrated anyway.

The trick is to just say no to sleep. Do it cold turkey.

Don’t even bother trying to work your way into
it bit by bit, an hour here, an hour there. Maybe
you’ve heard about people who train their bodies to
require less sleep so they only have to put in four or
five hours a night. They’re liars. It doesn’t work.

237
The average adult human needs between six and
eight hours of sleep each day in order to function
properly. When you get older your body’s needs
to change, so you can get by with less, but if you’re
functioning on less than six hours of sleep per night
on a regular basis, you’re just not functioning your
best.

You might think you’re fine, but that’s because you’re

used to operating at a sub-optimal level. You’re
really not fine. You’re sleep-deprived.

And while we’re on the subject, that whole idea of

sleeping for an extra few hours on weekends to make
up for lost sleep during the week? Yeah, that’s not
how it works either. There’s no bank of hours you
can credit and debit. Really, you just need one good
night of six to eight hours to get back on track.

But of course, none of this will matter to you

anymore, because you’re just giving up on sleep
altogether. That’s it. You’re done. Cold turkey.

No more sleep, and a full 24 hours of the day to do

all those things you never had time for before. Not
sure you can do it? As mentioned before, in 1964,
an American student set the documented record for
staying awake without any stimulants.
238
Eleven days.

That’s right, he didn’t sleep for eleven days.

Midterms must’ve been really stressful back in
those days. But you, YOU can do better than that,
right? Sure! You’re going to ditch sleep forever.

So how long could this sleepless “forever” last? How

will it affect you? Could you even be productive
without recharging every night?

When would your friends start telling you to get

some rest? What will you do with all your free time
now that you won’t have to waste so much of your
life lying in bed for no good reason?

Sleep Is Good For Your Health:

Or is there a good reason why we sleep? As it turns

out, there are plenty of good reasons.
It might seem like spending a third of your life ly-
ing in bed, eyes shut, snoring away, is a monumental
waste of valuable time.

But the reality is that even though you might not

be conscious, that doesn’t mean you aren’t doing
239
very important things while you’re asleep. Sleep can
help with your memory. Getting the right amount
of sleep can help extend your life span. Sleep helps
stop inflammation, which can lead to heart disease
and other health problems. Sleeping has been found
to help athletes improve their performance. It has
also been found to improve grades in children. Sleep
can also help people pay more attention, and help
balance their weight.

If you don’t sleep enough, or don’t get the right

kind of sleep…well, it’s kind of like turning off the
washing machine mid-cycle. You end up with soggy
clothes that are still a bit dirty. No REM means a
dirty, soggy brain.

So it’s really pretty essential to your long-term

growth and health that you get a good night’s sleep
with a solid REM cycle every night.

To Sleep, or Not To Sleep:

But that’s ok. I’m sure you’ll be just fine without

sleep.

But we would not recommend it. So grab yourself a

pillow, and take a siesta.
240
***

241
 Forty-One

Chapter 41

242