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.
FTA:
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?
I think everyone would be understanding about this today, even.
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.
Getting awful close to cosmic margins of error there
Fuck. We have a lot less time than we thought.