• Question: What is the hottest temperature the earth could be?

    Asked by alisondilaurentis to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      eventually the earth will probably be swallowed by the sun, so VERY hot indeed!!

      probably several tens of thousands of degrees before it begins to break down and be destroyed!

    • Photo: Angus Ferraro

      Angus Ferraro answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Greenhouse gases can warm the Earth up, but if we keep adding them eventually the warming effect runs out. But that won’t happen until things get really, really, really warm (hundreds of degrees).

      But as Simon says, things can get warmer than that if the Sun gets involved. If the Sun gets closer or warms up, the Earth could get so warm all of its oceans evaporate. Water vapour in the atmosphere is a greenhouse gas, so this would make it even warmer again! Eventually the Earth would start glowing red hot and reach several thousands of degrees.

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Great answers from Simon and Angus!

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 22 Jun 2013:

      To add to the previous answers: Right at the time of its formation, the Earth was extremely hot, basically a molted ball of rock. And through the last 6000 million years, there have been numerous periods when the Earth was much warmer than today. In the Cretaceous, for example, crocodiles and turtles were living in the Arctic Ocean!

Comments