In the midst of the current drama, that may seem a problem that is aeons away.

ECONOMIST: Cause for conCERN?

Because of that dead butterfly history changed, in a whisper or a roar, all down the aeons of time.

ECONOMIST: Ray Bradbury

In addition to traversing mountaintops and valleys, hikers will need to tackle gorges and chasms, sculpted by aeons of water and wind.

BBC: Walking through Australia��s pure desert heart

If, on the other hand, it has gradually dissipated over the aeons, the universe's expansion could eventually slow to a halt, or even go into reverse.

ECONOMIST: Cosmology

Dr Penrose's version of events is that the universe did not come into existence at the Big Bang but instead passes through a continuous cycle of aeons.

ECONOMIST: Cosmology

Best of all, the probe found that, although Schiaperelli's original canali were indeed an artefact of his telescope, the planet did have canyons and what appeared to be networks of valleys that seemed to have been carved by water flows aeons ago.

ECONOMIST: Martian chronicles