If you’re banking on Earth being around forever, Elon Musk has some grim news: we’re living on borrowed time—and the sun has the final say.
In a recent interview on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Musk gave his cosmic forecast. “Eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun,” he said. “The sun is gradually expanding, so we do at some point need to be a multi-planet civilization because Earth will be incinerated.”
Musk: And eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun. It's gradually expanding, we do at some point have to be multi-planetary civilization because Earth will be incinerated… pic.twitter.com/gMrW39tiBf
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 6, 2025
And according to Musk, the clock is already ticking. He claims that if Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years, “then Earth only has about 10% more life in it before it gets so hot that life is impossible.”
But Musk isn’t just doomsaying—he’s pitching a plan. Colonizing Mars, he argues, is humanity’s best shot at survival. “Mars is life insurance for life collectively,” he told Watters. “We have a long way to go. It’s not just about landing on Mars and fancy equipment. It’s about creating a self-sustaining city on Mars.”
He explains that if a Mars colony can’t operate without constant supplies from Earth, then it’s not real “life insurance.” For it to safeguard humanity’s future, it has to be fully self-sustaining in case Earth is no longer there to support it.
While the idea of Earth being torched by the sun might sound like a sci-fi plot twist, the science backs it up—sort of. Astrophysicists widely agree that the sun is on a slow but steady march toward destruction. As it ages, it burns hotter and brighter. In roughly 500 million years, that increased heat is expected to strip away Earth’s atmosphere and boil the oceans, rendering the planet uninhabitable. In about 5 billion years, the sun will expand into a red giant—very likely swallowing Earth whole, according to Space.com.
So yes, the threat is real—but also very, very far away. Musk’s point? That’s exactly why we need to act now. Waiting until humanity is gasping under a swollen sun would be, well, bad planning.
With SpaceX developing its Starship rockets and long-term visions of Martian cities, Musk has poured billions into this idea. He’s said before that Earth is a “single-planet civilization” living at risk of extinction from anything—from nuclear war to rogue asteroids—and that humanity’s long-term survival depends on its ability to become multi-planetary.
Now, he’s putting the sun itself on that threat list.
It’s a dramatic pitch, sure—but coming from the guy building rockets to Mars, it’s not just talk. Whether it’s hundreds of millions of years or a cosmic fluke tomorrow, Musk’s message is simple: Earth won’t last forever, and if we want to keep life alive, we’d better start packing.
