Now this is global warming

[clarencebunsen]

Something else to worry about, courtesy of Scientific American.
I am so glad I bought that solar powered umbrella for my outdoor table. Now if I could only figure out how to get it to power an air conditioner...

Whoops, the sun may vaporize Earth after all

British researchers report they've revamped their calculations of Earth's fate during the sun's predicted death, starting about 6.5 billion years from now—and it's not looking good. Their earlier thinking was that as the sun expanded into a red giant, it would shed considerable mass in the form of solar wind, which would weaken its pull on Earth enough for the planet's orbit to enlarge, thereby avoiding destruction, if not a good charring. Now they say one tiny factor was overlooked: the fact that the sun's wispy but expansive outer atmosphere would exert a drag on our mother world, causing it to plunge into the raging red monster and be vaporized. You might think there's nothing to be done, but it ain't necessarily so: They optimistically note that if we could orchestrate a near miss between Earth and a large asteroid once every 6,000 years, we could gradually nudge our planet's orbit far enough out to stay intact and even habitable. Or we could jump ship to another planet. Just a thought. (uk.arXiv.org)

[dgriffin]

Oh, Clarence, always the optimist! Something tells me all life will be gone from the earth due to the solar radiation before the process gets very far. But just in case, pray for asteroids. And while we're waiting, we should read accounts about how the best scientific minds predicted we'd never fly, never get to the moon and never elect a woman. I had dinner tonight with an old friend who has correctly predicted the outcome of every presidential election since Lincoln. Yes, he read about some of them, but beginning with Eisenhower ... and my friend was of course only in the 2nd grade back then, he has pegged them all. He doesn't know how or why. He just knows. He just knows Hillary is the next president. How long till the Red Giant?

[Disgusted-Daily]

Hey Dave I think your friend is gonna be wrong this time around.

[Swimmy]

6.5 billion years from now? I don't think we have to worry. Mankind will destroy itself long before the Sun swallows the Earth whole.

[clarencebunsen]

Fans of old SciFi could check out Last & First Men by Olaf Stapledon for a more exotic resolution to this problem. This was old when I first read it (probably during the Eisenhower administration) but it is still on the really dusty section of my bookshelf. He is a little more optomistic than Swimmy.

I just checked & it is still available on Amazon. For an even longer range view, buy the one that is combined with Starmaker. Don't read either of them for the science but for the horizon expansion

[dgriffin]

todd said:

Hey Dave I think your friend is gonna be wrong this time around.

Certainly hope so.
Here's the Herminator:

[dgriffin]

swimmy said:

6.5 billion years from now? I don't think we have to worry. Mankind will destroy itself long before the Sun swallows the Earth whole.

Oh, Swimmy, always the pessimist! Long before we all destroy ourselves, Bill Clinton will become the General Secretary of the United Nations and make the world a better place to live. It will be just like heaven then. There will be no global warming, no waste of energy, no wars, no blow jobs, ..whoops ... skip that one ... no guns, no terror, no pollution, no NRA .... whoops, skip that one, too, they'll be with "Moses" in the hills east of Los Angeles .... no retirees (saves a lot of money) and absolutely no negativity on the Internet.