There are two primary reasons why a man turns rogue. Either society abandons him, or he is traumatized by a drastic life-altering event. Without guidance and motivation, a man can lose his way, with his aptitude buried deep inside.
If we apply the same principle at a macro-cosmic level, some celestial objects indeed travel in random directions. Not all planets associate themselves with stars. We call them Rogue planets.
Rogue planets are either hopelessly drifting worlds or failed stars. Though they don't belong to any particular stellar system, they still circulate the galactic center, albeit in a random manner.
Sub-brown dwarfs
During stellar birth, gas and dust clouds bind themselves firmly due to gravity to build a protostar. If massive enough, the protostar allows its gravity to push radially inwards, which scales up the core's density.
Ultimately, it packs itself so tightly that it triggers the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to Helium. This process is crucial for a star to radiate and shine. But a few stars are too tiny, which allows them to fuse Deuterium and Tritium only. We call them failed stars or brown dwarfs.
There are even smaller bodies - the sub-brown dwarfs - they can't fuse Deuterium. Most of them are only a few times larger than Jupiter. They are also rogue planets.
Abandoned planets
Imagine that a planet is a part of a stellar system following its typical routine. What will happen if a massive object like a star or black hole or even a gas giant traverses the star system at a supposedly safe distance, but too close to the planet not to have significant gravitational interaction?
The trajectory of this world will be permanently modified. Over time, it will coast away from its home. It will become an orphan, cast away from its family. In other words, it will turn rogue.
It is highly common for the planets that generally orbit a star at vast distances with slanted orbits to drift away. It is because they barely cling onto the system with a loose arrangement.
Scientists have estimated the possibility of billions of rogue planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone.
Prospect of a rogue Earth
Imagine that the Earth detaches itself from the Sun's orbit due to the reasons mentioned above, and it starts floating away from the solar system.
Consequently, its temperature will gradually drop to less than minus 200 degrees Celsius. Then, the water will begin to freeze, starting from the surface. Life, as we know, will come to a halt. Eventually, the harsh environment will wipe out the terrestrial beings from the surface of the Earth. The aquatic life close to the surface will cease to exist too.
Over time, the atmosphere will freeze over and deposit on the Earth's surface. If aliens visit the solar system, they will see only a giant snowball in place of Earth.
Human life on a rogue Earth
It is indeed surprising to realize that the probability of humans to exist on a freezing planet is high. Again, we shouldn't get too optimistic.
Even with a deadly surface, we can still thrive underground. As we move towards the center of the Earth, the temperature increases gradually. It has its challenges - the availability of clean water and oxygen. If we discover a means of generating artificial sunlight, we can cultivate life-sustaining crops.
At some point, humanity will face the brutal destiny - To decide who will establish and dwell in the underground colonies. We will abandon the rest to freeze to death and lead a cursed life.
Instead of being exposed to the endless universe, our generations will only consider the underground colonies as their world. It will be an unfulfilled dream to explore the surface of the Earth.
The prospect of underground life has its dangers too. For instance, earthquakes can destroy these colonies. So, it is entirely a matter of sheer, dumb luck. If we are incredibly fortunate, we will thrive until the Earth's core continues to radiate its Geothermal energy in the form of heat. The region around the center will take billions of years to solidify completely, after which, Earth will be completely uninhabitable.
Imagine, if a contagious virus, like COVID - 19, breaks out in these colonies! It will be humanity's worst nightmare and will signal the end.
Life under an icy roof
The majority of human civilization isn't aware of the danger that places like Mariana Trench possess, particularly for humans. After some point, we cannot withstand the pressure. The deepest point to which a human has dived until now is at a depth of 332 meters. But the Mariana Trench is at a depth of a whopping 11,034 meters! The pressure is immense - about 1000 times more than the atmospheric pressure.
Still, some aquatic species can survive there. Their bodies don't have an air-filled cavity, ensuring that the overwhelming pressure won't squish them.
We can generally spot Hydrothermal vents in such depths, especially near volcanically active areas, that eject hot water and minerals. The organisms in such places consume these minerals to survive. The catch is, they won't be affected if the world goes rogue. Due to Earth's center's vicinity, the water in these deep regions won't freeze, for billions of years. They will additionally have a roof of ice when the upper aquatic layer freezes.
Though moons like Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede, Titan are frozen; scientists, thanks to the Cassini-Huygens mission, have estimated that they have oceans miles below the surface. That is why we think that life might exist there, albeit at a microscopic level.
Though microbial life might exist in these oceans, there is not much hope for these microorganisms to attain near-human intelligence. The main reason is the absence of fire.
What if the moon decides to follow the Earth? What if both of them turn rogue?
The moon's tidal forces on the Earth will result in a slight expansion-compression effect, which will induce heat energy and protect our world's water body from freezing quickly.
If a planet also has a high-pressure atmosphere that is predominant with hydrogen, it can trap the heat from escaping the Earth, which can even result in the retention of the liquid ocean on the surface for some time!
Surviving under several miles of ice has its advantages too. A gamma-ray burst would not pose any harm. Even during an asteroid collision, the organisms would only detect tremors.
Once the core of a planet completely solidifies, the entire water body will become ice. The world will transfigure into an icy prison for all its organisms, and forever, in their frozen tombs, they will rest in peace.
Sources
Thanks to Wikipedia, YouTube, especially the channel Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell!
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