“In the Atacama, I saw the future, when the sun eats up the last of its hydrogen and burns into its red-giant phase, big enough to cook life and clouds and oceans off this naked orb. It wouldn't be a fast process, not by our standards. Millions of years in the execution, our sky would finally be half filled by a sun the color of a red-hot moonrise. After that, the sun would probably collapse into a white dwarf, meanwhile blasting away its outer shells of gas into an explosive planetary nebula. I imagine that all of our minerals will pay off as we make a rainbow streak flaring off into space. We will be beautiful.” EarthSunDesertMineralsChileImagining The FutureAtacamaWhite DwarfDying StarsRed Giant Book:Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Ever-Ending Earth Source: Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Ever-Ending Earth
“When a planet is born from interstellar dust it has about twelve refractory minerals, those resistant to decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack. By the time it is complete with asteroid accretion and finally volcanic activity, about 1,500 different minerals are present. The earth has at least 4,300 species of mineral. This high number is unique in the solar system, a function of biological processes such as photosynthesis that releases oxygen which chemically bonds with almost every element, creating new minerals.” EarthPlanetsCosmosGeologyMineralsSolar SystemSigns Of Life Book:Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Ever-Ending Earth Source: Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Ever-Ending Earth
