The Stellar Death Clock: Parametric Simulation of Biospheric Collapse and Orbital Migration Efficiency

The long-term evolution of the Sun poses a fundamental thermodynamic constraint on the future habitability of Earth. Building upon the Civilizational Survival Factor (Ψ) framework introduced in the first paper of this series, this work presents a parameterized simulation of Earth’s biospheric collapse driven by increasing solar luminosity. Using analytical calculations derived from established stellar evolution models (Sackmann et al., 1993; Caldeira Rushby et al., 2013), key thermodynamic, atmospheric, and hydrological parameters were calculated at four critical milestones: present day, C3 photosynthetic disruption (~600 Myr), forest biomass collapse (~800 Myr), and terminal ocean desiccation (~1,100 Myr). These pre-computed values were then injected into the 3D physics engine Universe Sandbox solely as a visualization tool to generate illustrative renderings of the progressive environmental degradation. Finally, the thermodynamic efficiency of planetary orbital migration to 1.5 au is compared with that of an interstellar exodus scenario using the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation and gravitational potential energy calculations. The results indicate that orbital migration preserves the planetary biosphere with approximately three orders of magnitude greater energy efficiency per unit biomass than relativistic interstellar transport. This study highlights planetary orbital management as a thermodynamically favorable strategy for long-term civilizational survival, while explicitly acknowledging the illustrative nature of the 3D visualizations and the idealized assumptions of the migration model. The combined papers provide a conceptual and visual foundation for further research into active planetary engineering as a response to stellar evolution.