BANGALORE (TIP): The human population on planet Earth is more than 7 billion years old. We share the planet with as many as 8.7 million different forms of life, according to what is being billed as the most accurate estimate yet of life on the planet. Earth was formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface in the past 1 billion years. Scientists proved our planet has been rotating in the same direction for the past 4 billion years, and that the Earth’s magnetic polarity does change every few hundred thousand years.

The last time there was a change in this polarity was about 400,000 years ago, but there is no evidence to suggest it’ll happen again anytime soon. With these staggering figures, it’s surprising to see rumours about Doomsday and the world will come to an end today. It’ll require a catastrophe of unimaginably huge proportions to snuff out planet Earth in a matter of a few hours or as doomsayers’ predict, ‘in a day’. However, scientists worldwide agree that life on Earth will end one day. The good news is that this is unlikely to happen for another 4 billion years or so. It’d be safe to say we can go about our daily routine and make plans for the coming holiday season and the New Year and beyond.