Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
ISRO chairman S Somanath has cautioned that Earth is no longer safe and that humans would have to shift to another planet.
An archived version of the post can be seen here
Fact check
Newschecker did a Google keyword search for “ISRO chairman earth”, “ISRO Somanath earth”, which showed a few news reports on the lines of the claim.
According to an Indian Express article published on July 21, 2022, ISRO chairman S Somanath was speaking at a Human Space Flight Expo in Bengaluru. He said it was important to make outer space habitable for humans as “There is no guarantee that life on the earth won’t go extinct in the future. As human beings, we are not ready to go extinct. It is in this direction that it is important to tap the space and rocket technology to overcome the gravity of the earth and travel to space and make it habitable for life to thrive,” he said.
Somanath, the report revealed, also said, “…it is our responsibility to create the technological capabilities now and be able to travel to space and live there.” The report made no mention of Somanath stating that it was time to leave Earth now as it was uninhabitable.
A similar news report from Kerala Kaumudi on January 12, 2022, and in August 2019 (see from 36:14), Somanath shares his views on whether Earth would ever end.
“Of course, the earth will end. There is no doubt that the sun will end. The sun has a lifespan of 15 billion years. It will continue to exist for another four billion years. Though four billion years is so long, the earth would disappear before that. Once the fuel burns completely, the size of the sun will increase. It will increase and will be as large as the earth’s orbit. It will go beyond that. The earth will be inside the sun. At that time, the earth and other objects in the solar system will vanish,” he is heard saying.
Again, the video revealed that he did not say the Earth is not safe now and that it is time to leave. He, in fact, remarked that there is nothing to fear at this point of time. He further goes on to speak about the existence of an Earth-like planet 31 light years away and also highlights the need for man to find other habitable planets.
Newschecker also contacted ISRO and at the time of publishing this fact-check, we have not got a response. We will update once a reply is received.
Result: Partly false
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
