Nigh? The end of the world is already here

The end of the world is not merely nigh – it has already begun. Earth has started the process of turning into a burnt-out cinder that will eventually be swallowed by the Sun, say the astrobiologists Donald Brownlee and Peter Ward of the University of Washington.

They calculate that Earth's "day in the sun" has reached 4.30am, corresponding to its age of 4.5 billion years. By 5am the billion-year reign of animals and plants will have ended. At 8am the oceans will vaporise. At noon – after 12 billion years – the expanding Sun will engulf the planet, melting away any evidence that it existed.