Stephen Hawking made a bold claim about the end of the world and explained what will speed the process up

The late Stephen Hawking thought the world was going to end sooner than we might think.

It’s a grim subject to consider on a Tuesday morning, but here we are.

One of the most famous scientists of all time once made a damning statement about our future if we continue on our current trajectory.

Hawking was no stranger to setting predictions about our future, though this stands as one of his most famous, as he gave us a year to look out for.

His prediction about our future was harrowing (Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)

The famous physicist and author of The Theory of Everything foresaw a grim scenario for us in just under 600 years.

Prior to his passing back in 2018, he explained that factors such a population growth and energy consumption could transform the Earth into a ‘giant ball of fire’, unless we changed something.

The former University of Cambridge mathematician explained his prediction of our impending doom at the Tencent WE Summit in November, 2017, as he revealed that the world’s population up to that point was doubling every 40 years.

He explained: “This exponential growth cannot continue into the next millennium,

“By the year 2600, the world’s population would be standing shoulder to shoulder, and the electricity consumption would make the Earth glow red-hot.

“This is untenable,” Hawking said in his computer-generated voice.

It has recently been reported Hawking’s chilling claims have been backed up by NASA, though they have since denied this, as a spokesperson highlighted to Newsweek: “NASA has not made this claim.”

Come 2600, Hawking believes that Earth could look something like this (Getty Stock Photo)