NASA Illustration of evidence that the direct collapse of a gas cloud produced supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

Want to feel cosmically insignificant? Wikipedia’s "Timeline of the far future" catalogs scientific predictions stretching from the year 3001 to incomprehensibly distant timescales — 10^106 years and beyond.

Some highlights from the itinerary: In about 10,000 years, the red supergiant Antares will go supernova, visible in daylight from Earth. In 50 million years, Mars’s moon Phobos will crash into the planet. Around 600 million years from now, the Sun will be bright enough to end photosynthesis on Earth. In 5 billion years, the Sun enters its red giant phase. And 7.59 billion years from now, Earth and the Moon will likely fall into the expanding Sun.

But that’s practically tomorrow. In 1-100 trillion years, star formation ceases as the universe runs out of gas. In 120 trillion years, all remaining stars burn out. Then the Dark Era: the universe becomes a cold, expanding void of photons and leptons. The last supermassive black holes evaporate via Hawking radiation around 10^100 years from now. The truly enormous ones might last until 10^106 years.

The timeline draws from astrophysics, particle physics, and geology, treating speculation and established science with appropriate hedging. It’s a reminder that everything familiar — the Sun, the stars, even protons — is temporary. The universe has an expiration date. We just won’t be around to see it.

Previously: • Wikipedia’s mindblowing timeline of the far future • Timeline of the future: 1,000 years time to one hundred quintillion years

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