I wanted to know exactly what sort of chain reaction would trigger/occur during the end of all life on Earth, so I listened to Astronomy Cast episode 285.
There are a lot of silly theories as to how the Earth will really end. There is a constant pattern of people trying to frighten others with such theories. Well, I didn't get a straight answer.
Recently there was one theory about a "rogue planet X" coming out of some strange orbit causing a catastrophic polar alignment switching in our own orbit. This extra planet was in the Mayan stone carvings, while some research discusses an extra star, that is coming. -The speaker was sarcastic the whole time while describing this rogue planet theory- The other speaker was, meanwhile, debunking this theory as there is no giant object obscuring our vision of the sky. No stars are "winking out" as this "rogue planet" heads towards us. Frequently, when these apocalypses don't occur, the most common excuse is that the calculations for timing were wrong.
Solar flares that shake up the Earth's magnetic field, however, are worrying. Communication satellites even lose their lives in the face of solar flares as well.... (all this was relevant because a solar flare recently occurred that may also produce pretty aurorae as discussed in the podcast as a result of these phenomena)
Every year, the Sun, the Earth, and the center of our galaxy roughly line up since the center of the galaxy is in the constellation of Sagittarius, and the Sun of course passes through Sagittarius in December. Some people think this is a sign that some crazy laser alignment is going to come about and cause catastrophes.
A growing black hole slowly eating away at Earth is a possibility in the future. Or, our universe could spontaneously collapse into another.
According to the speaker, our universe is always experiment with itself- particularly with AGN- an active galactic nucleus.
Getting hit by a comet or asteroid is actually the thing that is likely to happen to Earth. According to all current data, an asteroid could come close to destroying the Earth but is more likely not to actually destroy it. If an asteroid was going to come incredibly close to the Earth, anybody could find out and it would be common knowledge even among amateur astronomers. Passionate astronomers can't keep secrets anyhow! Scientists aren't exactly involved in conspiracy theories.
As for aliens, if there is an alien force that is actually big enough to invade our planet, we would certainly see them coming.
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