Will Earth vaporize in 7.6 billion years?

Will the heat from the sun vaporize the earth in the 7.6 billion years? That is the dire prediction of two Astronomers from the University of Sussex - unless we do something about it.

The two scientists have based their calculations on the fact that in about 7.6 billion years the radius of the sun will expand to about 167 million kilometers from its current radius of 0.7 million kilometers, an increase of 256 percent! It will also be 2,730 percent brighter. If Earth remains at the same distance it currently is, it will be burnt to a cinder from the intense heat of the Sun.

The good news is that the expanding sun will lose mass, and therefore not have the same gravitational pull to the earth allowing the earth to drift away from it's current orbit - to probably where Mars is today. This could save the Earth, though some scientists think that it may not be far enough.

Another solution suggested by scientists is to use the gravity from a passing Asteroid to budge the Earth out of the Sun's way toward cooler territory. The only danger to this is that even a slight miscalculation could put it directly in the Asteroid's path. Also even if successful, this would only save the Earth for an additional few billion years, after which it would be stranded in the cold without the Sun.

The ultimate solution would be to find another planet to live on and move! Luckily none of us will be around to worry about what the right solution should be.