There are many ways future generations might come to an end. One is called the Mass Extinction Factor. Sixty-five million years ago a comet or asteroid hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs. Experts say possibly every 26 million years there is a mass extinction on earth. One way to explain this is that our sun could be part of a double star system. Every 26 million years the double star travels through the Oort cloud, a cloud of comets by Pluto, and creates an avalanche of comets, some of which strike our earth. There is enough debris created for the sunlight to be blocked from earth. Since there isn¹t any sunshine, most things die. Currently we are in the middle of the cycle so, if this theory holds true, we still have about 13 million years before another avalanche is created from the Oort cloud.

Another way the human race might come to an end is when the sun burns out. Our sun is middle-aged - about five billion years old. It will probably survive for another five billion years. After that, it will probably run out of hydrogen and start burning its helium. It will become inflated, a red giant, and its circumference will extend to the orbit of Mars. Our earth will become fried by the sun¹s incredible temperatures, and all life on earth will vanish. If we have become even a type one civilization in the next five billion years, which is extremely likely, we will be able to save ourselves by journeying to other planets.

A third possibility is being destroyed by a larger galaxy. Our closest galactic neighbor is Andromeda. Located two million light years away, Andromeda is two to three times larger than the Milky Way! The two galaxies are coming together at a speed of 125 km per second and it¹s predicted that they will collide within five to ten billion years. The human race will be able to avoid death with any of these disasters if they have become a type three civilization. An even more serious crisis, however, is surviving the death of our universe, unless we are able to tunnel into our sister universe.