<i>male narrator: The clock
of destruction is ticking.</i> - [coughing] <i>narrator:
A deadly heat wave</i> <i>is sweeping
over the entire Earth...</i> <i>with no end in sight...</i> <i>except total annihilation...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>because every day...</i> <i>the Earth is falling closer
and closer toward the Sun.</i> - There's no doubt that as Earth
goes toward the Sun and temperatures rise, <i>ice in Antarctica will melt</i> and that will make
the ocean levels rise. <i>♪ ♪</i> - You have
extreme temperatures. [explosions] You can't go outside. You try to turn on
the air-conditioning, <i>but the power is out.</i> <i>- All the water in our blood
would be boiling into vapor.</i> We would boil. <i>♪ ♪</i> This is the beginning of hell. <i>♪</i> ♪ [explosions] <i>narrator:
Will you be ready...</i> [people screaming] <i>When doomsday strikes?</i> <i>Can any of us survive?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [woman shouting] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Earth travels around the Sun</i> <i>at just the right distance
for life to exist.</i> <i>But what if our planet</i> <i>were suddenly thrown
from its orbit</i> <i>and spiraling into
the blazing heat of the Sun?</i> <i>How long could we survive?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - We haven't evolved
to breathe hot air. <i>♪ ♪</i> If you're outside
and it's 141 degrees... - [breathing heavily] - You'll burn your lungs. - [breathing heavily]
- [whimpering] - As you get closer to the Sun,
there's this death wave that moves both directions
towards both poles. And people have to keep
moving farther and farther north or south
to stay alive. [rumbling] - You start reaching
temperatures where aluminum melts
and even steel. [rumbling, bubbling] The whole memory of civilization
is completely erased. [rumbling, people screaming] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: Beneath
the North Atlantic,</i> <i>something strange is happening</i> <i>to the world's
most famous shipwreck.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- The "Titanic,"
3,800 meters down</i> is in the inky,
inky blackness of the deep ocean. <i>narrator: The "Titanic"
has been trapped in the dark</i> <i>since it sank in 1912.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>But today the wreck
is suddenly bathed in sunlight,</i> <i>and it starts to rise
from the ocean floor.</i> [ship groaning] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>In a field
outside Houston, Texas,</i> <i>two amateur astronomers find
that their stargazing app,</i> <i>which has always been
accurate before,</i> <i>isn't lining up
with the night sky.</i> <i>The stars are
in the wrong place.</i> - Mm-mm. <i>narrator: Normally, every night
the stars and planets</i> <i>look like they're in slightly
different parts of the sky,</i> <i>because the Earth is
in a slightly different place</i> <i>in its yearly
orbit around the Sun.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>But on this night, the stars
and planets rise exactly</i> <i>where they did
the night before.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- So astronomers
would think,</i> <i>"Oh, I just screwed up
something."</i> But then they would talk
to the other astronomers, and every telescope
in the world would be wrong. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
The reason the stars</i> <i>are no longer
changing their position</i> <i>is that after
4 1/2 billion years,</i> <i>the Earth is no longer
orbiting around the Sun.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - This is a terrifying thought. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: The cause is
30 billion miles away.</i> <i>A rogue star
with the mass of the Sun</i> <i>is moving through space.</i> <i>- We think of stars
as being stationary,</i> but, in fact, sometimes a star
will come a little too close and disrupt things. If the star got really close, it could screw up
the orbits of planets. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: The rogue star's
gravity is so powerful</i> <i>that as it passes,</i> <i>it affects the Earth,
even across billions of miles.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - If a rogue star were
to pass behind Earth, it's in the direction opposite
to Earth's motion, in which case
the gravitational pull retards the Earth
and takes away some orbital energy. <i>narrator: The star's
gravitational pull on Earth</i> <i>exactly matches the energy</i> <i>of our orbit around the Sun.</i> <i>But it pulls
in the opposite direction.</i> <i>- That would stop Earth
in its orbit,</i> and Earth
then would start falling almost directly toward the Sun. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Earth has orbited the Sun</i> <i>at an average distance
of 93 million miles.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Now, with that
orbit interrupted,</i> <i>the gravity of the Sun
is pulling us closer</i> <i>at the rate
of half a million miles a day.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And the closer we get,</i> <i>the hotter it gets.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Back in Houston....</i> <i>In a normal year, the city has
almost three months</i> <i>where the average temperature</i> <i>is above
90 degrees Fahrenheit.</i> <i>Now daily temperatures
are reaching 100.</i> [engine turning over] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>Texans deal
with the heat wave</i> <i>the way they always do...</i> <i>with air-conditioning.</i> [air conditioners
humming loudly] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>3,652 miles away,</i> <i>Barrow, Alaska, is also dealing
with a heat wave.</i> [man coughing] <i>And since America's
northernmost city</i> <i>has an average temperature
that's below freezing,</i> <i>most people don't have
air-conditioning.</i> <i>Instead,
they are sweating through</i> <i>Houston-like temperatures
in the upper 90s.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> Strange weather patterns are
happening all over the world. <i>Out-of-season hurricane cells
form in the Caribbean.</i> <i>Thousands flee inland,
as 100-mile-an-hour winds</i> <i>slam into Cuba's
northern coast...</i> <i>tearing apart homes</i> <i>and flooding
the streets of Havana.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Global warming increases
the power of storms.</i> <i>We now have more
powerful hurricanes</i> <i>than we had in the past,</i> just because we've
heated up the planet. So, when we're doing the
same thing as global warming, we're going to be increasing
the power of storms. [thunder booms] <i>After the first week or so,</i> <i>storms would pretty much</i> instantaneously react
to higher temperatures. When a hurricane
goes over warm water it increases
in speed and ferocity. <i>♪ ♪</i> [drill whirring] <i>narrator: All along
the Atlantic Seaboard,</i> <i>hundreds of thousands of people
board up windows,</i> <i>pile up sandbags
in front of their homes...</i> <i>and stockpile food and water.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>As the storm
picks up strength,</i> <i>it moves toward
the United States</i> <i>and makes a deadly landfall
on Cape Fear, North Carolina.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - As heat rises,
it causes more winds, more wind storms. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: Thousands of people
are suddenly homeless</i> <i>and struggle to survive
against the raging storm.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Some make it to safety.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Others aren't so lucky.</i> - [shouts] <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>At the same time,</i> <i>almost 500 miles
to the north...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>another super storm strikes
the Atlantic City Boardwalk</i> <i>and floods
the New Jersey Shore.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Tourists and residents
are forced</i> <i>into a desperate scramble
for higher ground.</i> - So, very quickly,
pretty much the beaches all over the place--
after even six days... <i>you're gonna have such
unstable weather patterns</i> <i>that they're gonna be
flooded completely.</i> - You've got more
and more severe thunderstorms... [thunder booms] <i>Which would generate
more lightning,</i> <i>which would then have
the capacity</i> <i>to ignite some
of this drier tinder</i> <i>and set more forest fires.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: But the real danger
is the heat</i> <i>that's causing the storms...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The temperatures
that increase every day,</i> <i>threatening the lives
of everyone on Earth.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Since the dawn of humanity,</i> <i>seeing the Sun rise
is the beginning of a new day.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>But it will get to a point</i> <i>where this
life-giving ball of energy</i> <i>will very quickly become</i> this nuclear furnace of death, that the last thing you want
to see every morning is that globe... very, very slowly... coming at you. <i>Every day we fall closer
to the Sun.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> Every day we're just
that much closer to hell. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: If the Earth
suddenly started moving</i> <i>closer to the Sun,</i> <i>triggering
an unprecedented heat wave,</i> <i>how could you survive?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Two weeks after being knocked
out of orbit by a rogue star,</i> <i>Earth is almost
7 1/2 million miles</i> <i>closer to the Sun.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Temperatures in Houston
and other American cities</i> <i>keep soaring.</i> <i>More people are staying indoors
and drinking more water.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Meanwhile,
in much of Europe,</i> <i>temperatures reach
100 degrees,</i> <i>More than 30%
higher than normal.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Across the continent,</i> <i>a heat wave strikes down
the weak and the elderly,</i> <i>from Scotland to Russia.</i> <i>The most conmmon cause</i> <i>of death is heatstroke.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>When the core body temperature
exceeds 105 degrees,</i> <i>it affects
the central nervous system.</i> <i>The heat can shut down
your body and kill you.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>For hundreds of millions,</i> <i>air-conditioning
is no longer about comfort.</i> <i>It's about survival.</i> <i>Those who have
air-conditioning</i> <i>stay inside and live...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>While those without
air-conditioning die,</i> <i>as their rooms
become coffins.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Air-condition is not
very common in Europe.</i> <i>Most people
are not used to deal</i> with such a fast
or quick change in temperature. <i>- Part of that's because they
have a more temperate climate,</i> <i>and part of it is because they
have these really old buildings</i> <i>that just weren't built
for it.</i> So, when the heat goes up, those people
without air-conditioning have nowhere to go. <i>narrator: 21 days since the
Earth was forced out of orbit.</i> <i>We are now almost 13 million
miles closer to the Sun.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Water is evaporating quickly</i> <i>from rivers and reservoirs</i> <i>and cities across the world.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Rivers would be dropping,</i> <i>because other than
just evaporating,</i> <i>they're also fed
by melt from mountains.</i> All of that would
start to go first. <i>♪ ♪</i> - Most of the shallow rivers,
canals, or so will fall dry. <i>♪ ♪</i> - Once you get close enough
to the Sun, the canals of Venice
would start to evaporate... <i>with no water left behind.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [bell tolling] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: Pigeons still flock
in the Piazza San Marco.</i> <i>These birds have evolved
to endure</i> <i>temperatures
of 120 degrees Fahrenheit</i> <i>and above.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>But there are no people
in the square.</i> - So it'd be this ghost town
with dry canals everywhere. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: As temperatures
continue to rise,</i> <i>throughout North America,
and Northern Europe and Asia</i> <i>all the snow has melted
from the upper latitudes.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>People are suffering and dying.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Around the equator,
the heat is even more intense.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>130 degrees or higher.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>In countries like Colombia,
and Brazil,</i> <i>Uganda, Kenya, and Indonesia,</i> <i>there are more corpses
than the survivors can bury.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - The people around the middle
of the Earth would be dead. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: And the horror
is only beginning.</i> [people screaming] <i>As we fall closer
and closer towards the Sun,</i> <i>people seek shelter
inside mountains...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>While cities are attacked
by armies of sand.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> ♪ ♪ <i>narrator: If Earth
were thrown out of orbit</i> <i>and kept falling closer
to the heat of the Sun,</i> <i>what would happen to humanity?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Across the world,</i> <i>the extreme heat
turns fertile land into desert.</i> [wind whistling] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Egypt is no longer nourished</i> <i>by the waters of the Nile.</i> <i>- When the Nile begins
to drop in water level,</i> all of the surrounding area that it used to flood
will start to dry out. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: What follows
is a catastrophe</i> <i>that dwarfs the ten plagues
of the Bible.</i> <i>- You start
to get sandstorms...</i> to the point
where you have sand blowing... <i>all the way from Western Africa
into Israel and beyond.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>You would actually
have the same thing</i> <i>at the same time
in the American Southwest,</i> <i>'cause they're
at the same latitude.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>You would have
Phoenix and Tucson</i> <i>dumping all of their sand
toward New Mexico.</i> New Mexico dumping it
into Houston. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>There would be
massive sandstorms</i> <i>from Eastern California</i> that would stretch
three states over. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>But ironically,
much of the world</i> <i>is still unaffected.</i> <i>70% of the planet is water.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And just a short way
below the ocean surface,</i> <i>marine life goes on as before.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Ocean water doesn't transmit
sunlight very well.</i> So, every 45 meters deeper, you lose another 36%
of whatever light was left. <i>And it takes time
for the heat changes,</i> <i>for the temperature changes,
to build up.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: So, on the muddy
floor of the North Atlantic,</i> <i>creatures that have made
their home</i> <i>in the wreck of the "Titanic"
are unaffected.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Since it went down in 1912,</i> <i>the "Titanic" has become home
to deep-sea animals</i> <i>like the rattail fish
and the spider crab.</i> <i>They feed and breed
in the decaying hulk.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>2 1/2 miles
of near-freezing water</i> <i>insulates them
from the heat wave above.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - As far as they're concerned,
nothing has changed. <i>narrator: But back on
the surface,</i> <i>life hangs in the balance.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - Humans, because we have
an audacity to us, will try and hold on
as long as possible. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: Some hope
to find shelter</i> <i>in the side of a mountain
in China's Shanxi Province.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>More than 3,000 feet
above sea level</i> <i>lies the Ningwu Ice Cave.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>300 feet deep,</i> <i>this cave traps
frigid winter air</i> <i>and remains frozen
all year round,</i> <i>lined with thick ice,
even on the hottest days.</i> <i>- There are ice caves,</i> <i>and I've been
in a number of them.</i> It is very, very, very cold
on the interior. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Of course, they would
need supplies of food</i> <i>and water and power.</i> <i>And they would need
to somehow deal with sewage,</i> <i>and they'd have lots
and lots of problems,</i> but they could try to live
in these caves. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: There are also other
frozen places in the world</i> <i>where desperate people
seek shelter...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The North and South Poles.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - As you get closer to the Sun,
there's this death wave that moves both directions
towards both poles, and people have to keep
moving farther and farther north or south
to stay alive. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- People will try to head</i> to the Arctic Circle
or Antarctica or book passage
on ice clippers. - Because Antarctica is one
of the most protected places, you get the Sun's rays
at an oblique angle, and so the temperatures
don't rise as fast. <i>- It takes time
for the heat changes,</i> for the temperature changes,
to build up. - Down there, it's going to be
about 70 degrees cooler. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: An American
icebreaker research vessel</i> <i>is off the coast
of Ross Island in Antarctica.</i> <i>Its mission is not to escape
the rapidly warming climate,</i> <i>but to study it.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The scientists
still pass glaciers</i> <i>and ice sheets,</i> <i>but that ice is melting
faster than ever.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>On board the icebreaker,</i> <i>computer models reveal</i> <i>that if we continue
towards the Sun at this rate,</i> <i>almost all of Antarctica's ice</i> <i>will disappear
in less than a month.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - There's no doubt that as Earth
goes toward the Sun and temperatures rise, <i>ice in Antarctica will melt.</i> And that will make
the ocean levels rise. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: The coasts
of the world begin to flood.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - Parts of coastal Hawaii
would undoubtedly be affected by the rising sea levels. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Bangladesh has a very low
average height above sea level.</i> <i>The Netherlands
has a low height.</i> <i>They're toast.</i> Louisiana, New Orleans, places
like that will get flooded. <i>♪ ♪</i> - This is a constant level
of water that is rising, from Maine to Key West, from Alaska all the way
down to San Diego. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The Mississippi Delta
is reaching into Oklahoma.</i> <i>narrator: The Atlantic City
Boardwalk is under water.</i> <i>The deluxe casinos
give way to the ocean.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Even many miles inland,
away from coastal flooding,</i> <i>melting ice reshapes landscapes
across the world.</i> <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>In Zermatt, Switzerland,</i> <i>with the temperature hitting
110 degrees Fahrenheit...</i> [echoing boom] <i>People hear an echoing boom,</i> <i>and a strange gray
and white cloud of dust</i> <i>fills the streets.</i> <i>It comes
from the nearby Matterhorn.</i> [rumbling] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- The Matterhorn has glaciers
right at the base of it,</i> <i>and they're sort of helping
keep the thing together.</i> When you start melting
the glaciers, parts of it would start
to crumble. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- From the Matterhorn</i> <i>to the Himalayas
to the Andes,</i> <i>you would have
massive avalanches.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> Hundreds of thousands
of cubic feet, densely packed ice and snow
heat up and crack. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: As temperatures
continue to soar,</i> <i>the skies will be streaked
with fire,</i> <i>and even the coldest shelters
may fall to the rising heat.</i> [ice cracking] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: If Planet Earth
were thrown out of orbit</i> <i>and started hurtling
towards the Sun,</i> <i>how long could we survive?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>After five weeks, the Earth,</i> <i>traveling at 22,000 miles
an hour,</i> <i>is now only 74 million miles
away from the Sun.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The skies are streaked
with blazing light,</i> <i>as hundreds
of satellites cascade</i> <i>through the air as fireballs.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - The atmosphere on the Earth
is made of gases, and when they get hot,
they expand. <i>And that means
that the low-lying satellites</i> <i>are going to start feeling
a drag</i> <i>that they didn't feel before.</i> <i>That drag is going
to destabilize their orbits,</i> and because of that,
those may fall, just like a meteor shower. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
The destruction of satellites</i> <i>means the loss of television
and radio services</i> <i>in towns and cities
across the world.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Cell phones and the Internet
also start to fail,</i> <i>because the electrical
power grid</i> <i>is being pushed
to its limit...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>By people desperate
for air-conditioning.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- By the time you reach
day 35,</i> the average temperatures
have gotten up to the range that are exceeding
the very highest temperatures ever recorded on the Earth-- things like 135,
137 degrees or so. <i>That's getting near death zone
sort of temperatures</i> <i>for the human body.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- We haven't evolved
to breathe hot air.</i> <i>If you're outside
and it's 141 degrees</i> and the average humidity
is, say, 10%, you'll burn your lungs. I can't breathe! <i>In Barrow, Alaska,
people fight to stay alive</i> <i>with new
air-conditioning systems</i> <i>powered by
emergency generators.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Countless millions around the
world stay inside, but their
shelter won't last forever.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [electricity crackling] [click, people groan] <i>- The power grids are so taxed</i> from days and weeks
of trying to combat this heat <i>that they're failing.</i> <i>Also, the problem is humidity.</i> If you're in
a very humid environment, you can have a wet mat
and a fan, and the evaporation of the water
will cool the air. But when you're in a dry heat, you need a radiator-type
air conditioner. You need one with an antifreeze,
with coolant, like a radiator in a car. <i>So, if you're running it
for the past three weeks,</i> <i>as the temperature
has slowly jumped</i> <i>from 70 to 80 to 100 to 120,
now 141,</i> <i>the coatings on wires</i> <i>are getting superheated.</i> <i>If that air conditioner
is running too much,</i> <i>it will begin to overheat.</i> It will begin
to lose that coolant. <i>It will begin to fail.</i> <i>And you're sitting
in your room</i> <i>slowly dying
of heat exposure.</i> <i>The world's power grid,
overwhelmed by the need for air
conditioning,</i> <i>finally shuts down.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And time runs out
for millions of people--</i> <i>the victims of heatstroke.</i> <i>- And you have
extreme temperatures.</i> You can't go outside. You try to turn on
the air-conditioning, but the power is out, and so you just die. <i>Narrator: Traveling at almost</i> <i>42,000 miles an hour,</i> <i>the Earth is now just
68 million miles from the Sun.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And the average temperature
is an unbearable 169 degrees.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - The term "nightmare" doesn't
really even apply anymore. This is the beginning of hell. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
In Ningwu, China,</i> <i>the ice cave, once a sanctuary
for desperate survivors...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Becomes a prison.</i> <i>The heat of the outside air
has seeped inside.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - At some point,
even those caves themselves are going to begin to melt. <i>♪ ♪</i> - You will not escape this. [ice cracking,
indistinct chatter] <i>♪ ♪</i> [rumbling, ice crashing] <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Even in the Antarctic,</i> <i>the temperature
is now 130 degrees...</i> <i>at the upper limit of what
human beings can endure.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The American research team
living on an icebreaker</i> <i>is struggling to hang on.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Antarctica may be one</i> of the last habitable places
on Earth. <i>But if there's any ice
left on the planet at all,</i> <i>it's rapidly melting.</i> <i>It's not really
an ice cap anymore.</i> <i>It's more of a weird slushy.</i> Boats would be
under constant flux <i>of glaciers falling over
and pushing tides.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
In the rest of the world,</i> <i>survival
is no longer possible.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- So, on day 47,</i> with a global temperature
average of 217 degrees, that's 5 degrees
over the boiling point of water. <i>♪ ♪</i> - This is beyond
human habitability. <i>♪</i> ♪ - Not only does water boil, but being mostly water,
we would boil. <i>All the water in our blood
would be boiling into vapor.</i> All of that excess vapor will be then going
to your brain and your heart-- strokes, cardiac arrest. <i>♪ ♪</i> - You will die. <i>♪</i> ♪ <i>narrator:
The oceans are evaporating,</i> <i>and steam begins to spread
over the Earth.</i> <i>-</i> <i>narrator: The hot mist fills
the ruins of Havana...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The ghostly canals of Venice,</i> <i>and soon,
most of the planet.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>As oceans boil</i> <i>and humanity
is left for dead...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Our proudest achievements
burn...</i> <i>and melt.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: What if,
after 4.6 billion years,</i> <i>Earth was thrown out of orbit
and fell towards the Sun?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Could our planet survive?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> [explosions] <i>narrator:
After 6 1/2 weeks</i> <i>narrator:
Will you be ready...</i> <i>of falling toward the Sun,</i> <i>our planet is simply too hot
to live on.</i> <i>Of the over 7 billion people
on Earth,</i> <i>no one is left alive.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Even on the icebreaker
in Antarctica...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The last humans are dead,</i> <i>the blood inside them
boiling...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Like the seas around them.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Because the surface
of the water</i> <i>will be above 212 degrees,</i> if an iceberg
were to slough off a glacier, you would have... <i>for a very brief moment,</i> <i>an iceberg sailing past
your research vessel,</i> <i>as the sea around you is
beginning to very gently roil.</i> <i>That would be
a very strange sight.</i> Think of it is as an ice cube
in a bowl of soup. It will exist for a moment... <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>but then just slowly fade
and disappear.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - Day 53,
the oceans are boiling. Almost all life is gone. Only stuff in the deep,
deep ocean may survive. <i>♪ ♪</i> [rumbling, fire crackling] <i>narrator: After almost
nine weeks</i> <i>of falling towards the Sun,</i> <i>temperatures on Earth
exceed 600 degrees Fahrenheit.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Across the world,
wood spontaneously combusts...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Furniture ignites...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Billions of books
burst into flame.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- As the Earth gets hotter
and hotter,</i> you get the wood
all drying out. <i>Once you pass
the combustion point of wood,</i> <i>you get massive
forest fires everywhere.</i> <i>You won't have people
to put this stuff out.</i> So you're just gonna get
these raging forest fires all over Earth
that's gonna increase smoke. <i>It may block out some of
the light of the Sun,</i> <i>but it doesn't matter.</i> <i>It's still gonna
keep getting hot.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: Hot enough
for gasoline</i> <i>to burst into flames
on its own.</i> - Everything that has fuel in it
is a bomb at this point. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: More than
a billion cars,</i> <i>buses, and trucks
around the world...</i> <i>explode.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - It's gonna be
a real hellscape. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Amidst the devastation...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Another force,
the Sun's gravity,</i> <i>begins to tear
at the structure of the planet.</i> <i>- The Earth itself,
for most of this plunge,</i> until almost near
the final couple days, other than
the temperature changes, the structure
of the Earth itself is relatively unchanged <i>until the final moments
till we're actually</i> practically
within the solar photosphere-- the outermost atmosphere
of the Sun. <i>narrator: Earth has not yet
had its worst day.</i> <i>That is about to come.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: If the Earth
were thrown out of orbit</i> <i>and falling towards the Sun...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Could our planet survive?</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Every human on Earth
has perished in burning heat.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- Probably won't even see
the skeletons at that point,</i> because at those temperatures, that organic matter
is going to break down and effectively burn to ash. So it's going to be a world that is fundamentally different
than anything that we know. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
The planet we once lived on</i> <i>is only 6 1/2 million miles
from the Sun</i> <i>and closing in
at 500,000 miles an hour.</i> - At this stage of the game,
the Earth itself would actually look
probably very much like a very large comet. <i>You're evaporating
so much water</i> <i>from the surface
of the oceans,</i> upper parts of the atmosphere
are being evaporated off by the extreme heat of the Sun. The atmosphere itself
is being lost at this point. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Today is Earth's last day.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>At dawn, the temperature is
1,472 degrees Fahrenheit.</i> <i>At the beginning of our
fateful fall into the Sun,</i> <i>Earth's average temperature</i> <i>rose by two degrees Fahrenheit
in a week.</i> <i>Now it rises three degrees
every minute.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The Statue of Liberty stands</i> <i>in what was once
New York Harbor...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>But is now a vast canyon.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- The harbor
has been evaporated and dry...</i> desiccated. <i>narrator: As for Lady Liberty,
her skin is copper.</i> <i>Her copper torch is coated
in 24-karat gold.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The gold melts away...</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And the copper flame
turns to liquid.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- You start reaching
temperatures</i> where aluminum melts, and even steel melts. <i>You have limestone melting,
granite melting.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> The whole memory of civilization
is completely erased. <i>There's nothing left of us.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
10 hours into the 65th day,</i> <i>the temperature exceeds
3,600 degrees Fahrenheit.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Now, even mountains</i> <i>and the mantle of the Earth
simply melt.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - What was once what we call
a rocky planet really becomes a boiling soup <i>of all sorts
of melting rocks and metals.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
Then 2 1/2 hours later,</i> <i>one million miles from the Sun,</i> <i>the Sun's gravitational pull
on the Earth</i> <i>changes the very shape
of our planet.</i> - The final destruction
of the Earth is not so much the evaporation
of the water <i>and the boiling of the rock.</i> <i>The final doom of the Earth</i> is not the heat effects
from the Sun, but the Sun's gravity. <i>narrator: The gravity triggers
every single earthquake fault.</i> [rumbling] <i>Massive temblors
shake the planet.</i> <i>- Also, fissures
in Earth's crust</i> will open the passage for magma to flow through known openings, new openings,
and volcanic vents. <i>narrator: Every volcano
on Earth explodes.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - The Earth starts
to get torn apart. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator:
As the crust breaks,</i> <i>the remaining
ocean water rises,</i> <i>pulled by the Sun's gravity,</i> <i>and evaporates in the Sun's
overwhelming heat.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> - And so the final light
that the "Titanic" sees, <i>in the deep ocean, which has
been dark all this time,</i> <i>is going to be the water
of the Earth itself</i> <i>flows off of the planet
and is evaporated as it goes.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- There will be a brief moment</i> where all the Earth's water
evaporates. There'll be a brief moment <i>where sun will dawn
upon the "Titanic" once more.</i> <i>- The "Titanic" sees
the brilliant flare of the Sun,</i> and in those last few seconds, the Earth itself
is pulled apart, <i>and literally every bit
of the Earth itself</i> <i>is exposed
to the solar atmosphere.</i> <i>- The Earth, at its very end,</i> <i>looks very much
like the Earth at its infancy--</i> a very hot ball of lava deformed by the forces
of the Sun. <i>So what you see
is our history in reverse.</i> - The gravity becomes so strong
that Earth will deform, and the Earth
will simply fall into pieces. <i>♪ ♪</i> - And then that's it. <i>♪ ♪</i> - In the end,
everything gets destroyed. <i>♪ ♪</i> - The ultimate fate
of the Earth is that it will be ripped apart
into these chunks <i>that will then fly
into the Sun.</i> <i>When we pollute</i> <i>the pristine
hydrogen atmosphere of the Sun</i> with everything
that has ever lived on Earth, it may produce
some kind of signature that distant astronomers
other places could see on our star
and say, "Hmm, something really crazy
happened there." <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>narrator: The Sun
will continue to burn brightly</i> <i>for billions of years.</i> <i>But for the Earth,</i> <i>this has truly been
doomsday.</i> <i>This is truly ...the end.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i>
