The earth is flung into deep space

I've been reading the book Nomad, and in it

a binary pair of black holes is cruising into the solar system, and threatens to slingshot the earth out into deep space

That's got me thinking, is there any chance of survival beyond a few days/weeks when the atmosphere freezes? (Would it freeze?)

Just off the top of my head, I suppose a nuclear submarine parked near some geothermal vents (where the water hopefully wouldn't freeze) could last until the food ran out. The folks on the ISS wouldn't have sunlight for power so they wouldn't last too long.

Obviously we'd be looking at either nuclear or geothermal energy sources to keep us going, coupled with some closed loop life support systems. To be sustainable (both short term for food and long term for population), it'd have to be fairly large-scale.

In The Martian, Mark Watney is nearly self sufficient. He'd need more space to grow food, plus some nuclear power would help. Would that system scale? We have the advantage of earth's mineral resources that may still be accessible to an extremely well-equipped band of survivors.

Let's assume we have plenty of warning that the earth is going to be ejected (say decades).

Is there any possibility for humanity to survive long enough for us to develop advanced enough technology for our own deep space-capable ships (so, permanently)?

posted about 8 years ago

Josh Pirihi‭

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