NASA scientist warns of future oxygen depletion on Earth

New York [US], September 28: Scientists analyze the factors that led to the Earth's atmosphere becoming unable to sustain life, according to the planet's evolutionary cycle.
According to the Leravi magazine on September 28, scientists at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that the Earth's atmosphere has an "expiration date" and the countdown has begun, with the very distant future that the Earth will run out of oxygen .
Researchers from NASA's Nexus for Exoplanet System Science project, in collaboration with Toho University (Japan), have calculated that Earth has about a billion years left before its atmosphere can no longer sustain life as we know it.
While that span of time far exceeds the lifespan of everyone living on Earth, the discovery is changing the way we understand the evolution of the planet.
The culprit behind this slow-motion disaster is the sun. As the Earth gradually warms, CO₂ molecules in the atmosphere will begin to break down. This starts a chain reaction because plants depend on CO₂ for photosynthesis, so without it, they can't make oxygen.
No photosynthesis means no oxygen, and the consequences would be catastrophic. Scientists warn that this process would slowly turn the Earth into a desert, eventually turning it into a barren rock, just as it was billions of years ago.
This is a stark reminder that even the most basic processes that sustain life are fragile and interdependent.
When the CO₂ collapse begins, life as we know it will disappear. Plants will die, oxygen will disappear, and animals and humans will not be able to survive. The ozone layer will also disappear, exposing the Earth to deadly levels of solar radiation. Only anaerobic microorganisms, which can live without oxygen, will survive.
Although this transformation is expected to last about a billion years, signs of atmospheric deterioration may appear thousands of years earlier.
Scientists Kazumi Ozaki and Christopher Reinhard used large-scale simulations to predict when the amount of oxygen on Earth will no longer be enough to sustain life. They concluded that even the planet we consider perfect for life is only temporary on the cosmic scale.
Worse, the destruction of oxygen would coincide with rising methane levels. This would accelerate atmospheric degradation, making the air increasingly toxic and leading to the extinction of countless species.
The existence of Earth 's atmosphere reminds us that no planet is inherently or permanently hospitable. It also raises key questions about what makes a planet truly habitable and for how long.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper