"Unbelievable Space Events that you'd be lucky to miss"

Earth’s magnetic field is one of its most fascinating features, and it plays a critical role in protecting us from harmful cosmic rays. However, it turns out that this magnetic field is weakening day by day, and if this trend continues, we could be in for some trouble within a millennium.

So, what’s the big deal? The weakening of Earth’s magnetic field could lead to a polarity reversal, where magnetic north becomes south, and vice versa. This event would be pretty wild, and it would weaken our planet’s protective magnetic shield, allowing more cosmic rays to hit us. These high-energy particles from the universe can cause electronic malfunctions in our satellites and produce elements that could be harmful to us.

The last time a polarity reversal occurred was between 772 and 774 thousand years ago. Thankfully, humanity has some pretty smart people on the case who are investigating the history of Earth’s magnetic field. They take cores of sediments from the seafloor and study the magnetization of fossils to figure out when these reversals occurred in the past and when they might happen again.

Another group of researchers is studying the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), a vast region of Earth’s magnetic field that is about three times weaker than the field at the poles. Using data from multiple satellites, they are trying to figure out what’s causing the SAA and how it might change in the future. This could give us a glimpse into how a weakened magnetic field can affect our satellites and our planet.

Sure, our generation won’t be here to witness these changes, but it does make you wonder what that planet might look like upside down magnetically. That is if the polarity reversal occurs.

In addition to Earth’s magnetic field weakening, NASA astronomers have also announced that in 4 billion years, the Milky Way galaxy is going to get a major glow-up after a cosmic collision that will shake things up. I’m not talking about a small fender bender here. I’m talking about a Titanic collision with our neighboring Andromeda galaxy.

Humanity will have to hold on to its space helmet for this one because the sun might get flung into a new region of the galaxy. However, our Earth and solar system probably won’t be seriously affected. Sounds difficult to believe? So how come NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope did some hardcore measurements of Andromeda’s motion? Although the galaxies will plow into each other, the stars inside each galaxy are so far apart that they won’t collide with other stars during the encounter. However, the stars will be thrown into different orbits around their new galactic centers. According to simulations, our solar system will probably be tossed much farther from the galactic core than it is today.

Saturn is losing its rings as they are being pulled into the planet due to its magnetic field. The ring rain is draining an amount of water that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every half an hour. The ring system will likely disappear in 300 million years.

Planet rings are temporary. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune may have giant ring systems we haven't seen. Saturn's rings may have been acquired later in life and are unlikely to be older than 100 million years. Saturn is 4.5 billion years old.

What does all of this mean for us? Who knows what humans might end up looking like in the future? It’s unlikely we’ll see any major changes in our lifetime, but let’s take a journey to the future and ponder what we might evolve into. Will we become cyborgs with all sorts of cool machine implants? Or maybe we’ll become a hybrid species of biological and artificial beings?

To understand our future evolution, we’ve got to take a peek at our past. A million years ago, Homo sapiens didn’t even exist. There were a few other similar species, though, like the Neanderthal. Fast forward to today, and humans have become taller and sturdier. Maybe in the future, we’ll become smaller to conserve energy, as it’s predicted that our planet will get more crowded.

Speaking of crowded planets, living in these new conditions means we have to adapt fast. We’re constantly interacting with lots of people, and remembering names is becoming a crucial skill. Luckily, technology might help us out with brain implants that will improve our memory. In the future, we might also have more noticeable tech.