Venus, the second closest planet to the sun, was once Earth-like.

But a build-up of greenhouse gasses in its atmosphere turned the planet into a boiling celestial body with temperatures of 250 degrees celsius and wind speeds of up to 100 metres per second.

President Trump recently took the controversial steps of withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement – a move which Professor Hawking says could destroy Earth.

In an interview to mark his 75th birthday, the world famous physicist told the BBC: "We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible.