Yes. It is possible that the Buddha was referring to visible expansions of a nearest star that eventually “blew up” as a supernova.
The view of sky would certainly be a lot different billions of years from now. The following is based on the prediction by NASA:
Collision of Andromeda with Milky Way:
We can’t really be too sure. So whether Buddha was referring to the increase of temperature in stages or the visible craziness in the sky, the most important message of that sutta is the anicca nature of this world. Another significant statement by Buddha:
So impermanent are conditions, so unstable are conditions, so unreliable are conditions. This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.
Many concepts in Vedic literature, including karma (for kamma) got into the Vedas from Buddha Kassapa, who was on Earth before Buddha Gotama.
Many Buddhist texts say that Buddha “burrowed” the idea of “karma” from Hinduism. This was my assumption too before I found the correct interpretation of kamma/kamma vipaka which is a lot different from the “supernatural force of morality governed by Gods” idea of karma. This foundational concept can be used as an axiom to examine the self-consistency of Buddha Dhamma which makes it appropriate for a scientific approach. Isn’t it ironic that the exact same thing has happened since Mahayana Buddhism started using the Sanskrit terms with Vedic ideas?
But it is crazy to think that humans have been here for billions of years. Considering the fact that most of our technologies have been innovated in the past few thousand years, I can’t imagine the sheer number of wars, pandemic, natural disasters, etc that have caused mass extinctions all over the planet. What a crazy world we live in!