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Our Solar System Is Terminally Unstable and Will Be Completely Destroyed, Study Finds (www.404media.co)

submitted 19 hours ago by heliotrope@slrpnk.net to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 48 points 18 hours ago

FTA:

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.

[-] Arcanepotato@crazypeople.online 19 points 18 hours ago

FTA:

“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.

[-] bampop@lemmy.world 8 points 18 hours ago

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

[-] baines@lemmy.cafe 3 points 8 hours ago

is that going to take longer than 30 years?

[-] ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml 21 points 17 hours ago

Yeah, at that magnitude loss one more and we'd only have tens of millions of years left.

[-] Ariselas@piefed.ca 13 points 16 hours ago

does that mean I can quit my job and go on a hedonistic rampage?

[-] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 2 points 8 hours ago

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.

[-] some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago

I think everyone would be understanding about this today, even.

this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2026

139 points (88.4% liked)

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