The estimated lifespan of the outer solar system has been downgraded from 100 billion years to just a few billion years, according to a study that probed “terminal instability” during the Sun’s death.
The estimated lifespan of the outer solar system has been downgraded from 100 billion years to just a few billion years, according to a study that probed “terminal instability” during the Sun’s death.
“Newton’s envisioned instability is real after all,” the team. “He was mistaken only about the perpetrator.”
The news isn’t that the solar system will eventually collapse (the concept of entropy isn’t new) but that the mass loss is not predictable and smooth and the impact of the irregular mass loss fucks with their orbit:
The recently measured white dwarf recoil demands asymmetric mass loss that is most readily attributed to discrete, independently directed ejections that impulsively perturb stellar motion.
You’re looking at 3 further drops of that magnitude for it to have any meaningful impact on anyone alive today. But if we do have 3 then yes, it’s absolutely time to go apeshit.
Nope. One more downgrade like that and the collapse of the solar system will be 88 billion years in the past. It’ll collapse before it even formed, and none of this mess will have happened in the first place. Come to think of it, that doesn’t sound so bad. Since it precedes the big bang, that might help with damage limitation.
FTA:
Fuck. We have a lot less time than we thought.
FTA:
The news isn’t that the solar system will eventually collapse (the concept of entropy isn’t new) but that the mass loss is not predictable and smooth and the impact of the irregular mass loss fucks with their orbit:
People are acting like it’s not a problem, but if we have just one more downgrade of that magnitude, we’ll be in big trouble
Yeah, at that magnitude loss one more and we’d only have tens of millions of years left.
does that mean I can quit my job and go on a hedonistic rampage?
You’re looking at 3 further drops of that magnitude for it to have any meaningful impact on anyone alive today. But if we do have 3 then yes, it’s absolutely time to go apeshit.
I think everyone would be understanding about this today, even.
is that going to take longer than 30 years?
Nope. One more downgrade like that and the collapse of the solar system will be 88 billion years in the past. It’ll collapse before it even formed, and none of this mess will have happened in the first place. Come to think of it, that doesn’t sound so bad. Since it precedes the big bang, that might help with damage limitation.
I can get behind Accelerationism if it means we cause an integer overflow