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The Earth is facing a scorching future, according to astrophysicist Anjali Tripathi, who warned that the planet might turn from blue to red like Mars due to atmospheric escape. Tripathi discussed this process at TED Talks that might pose a threat to life on earth in the distant future.

According to Tripathi, 400 lbs of hydrogen and 7 lbs of helium escape from the Earth's atmosphere into outer space every minute. She explained how the process might transform Earth into a barren world like Mars which remains inhospitable.

Tripathi is a 2016-2017 White House Fellow. Her featured TED Talk was entitled "Why Earth May Someday Look Like Mars" and focused on the collective loss of helium and oxygen every minute. She attributed the influenced of the sun's heat on the atmospheric escape.

"Our hydrogen, from water that is broken down, is going to escape into space more rapidly, and we're going to be left with this dry, reddish planet," said Tripathi. "This gas is going off and never coming back," she added.

Tripathi has degrees in physics and astronomy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard University. Her current work is focused on the phenomenon of atmospheric escape. She is credited for pioneering the characterization of planet-forming environments.

The TED Talk explained how transiting exoplanets undergo atmospheric escape. These exoplanets are close to their star or about a hundred times closer than Jupiter. Catastrophic rates of atmospheric escape are experienced by these exoplanets with 1.3 billion pounds of hydrogen released every minute.

Tripathi assured the TED audience that humans have more time to prepare before Earth turns into a dessert. She said that this will not happen in few billion years. "What we can look forward to, or at least prepare for, is the fact that in the far future, the Earth is going to look more like Mars," she said.

In the video below, Anjali discusses how the Earth is just one of many planets that is losing its atmosphere to space. Share your thoughts on the article in the comment section.