The fate of the Earth in Cowboy Bebop is left ambiguous for the first eight or so episodes of the anime. However, once we finally see it, we have to wonder what happened to the Earth. It’s full of ruins and constantly bombarded with meteor showers. Furthermore, the Moon is shattered, and pieces of it litter the space around it.
What happened to the Earth in Cowboy Bebop?
In Cowboy Bebop, the Earth was bombarded by chunks of the Moon when part of it exploded due to the Astral Gate accident in 2021.
By 2071, when the series takes place, the Astral Gates are widely used to travel among humanity’s colonies throughout the solar system. However, the first gate, constructed in Moon orbit, exploded when it was activated. The explosion pulverized a large part of the Moon. Afterward, the debris was pulled in by Earth’s gravity and rained down in massive meteor showers. Almost 5 billion people were killed in the following years as deadly debris rained down.
Most of the remaining population escaped the Earth and formed settlements throughout the solar system. However, a small amount of people remained (including Ed and her father) and continue to live under the constant threat of meteor showers. Most of those who were born in the colonies consider Earth to be a backward place filled with relics of a time long past.
Despite the incident, by 2071, another Astral Gate was constructed in Earth orbit, and enough infrastructure was in place to allow communications, internet, and TV broadcasts in parts of the globe. However, since so little of Cowboy Bebop takes place on Earth, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the state of its government, the exact number of people left there, and whether there is any plan to prevent the rock showers from continuing in the future. Like many locations in the show, we’re left with more questions than answers.
