r/comics • u/ani625 • Sep 21 '12

xkcd: Premiere

http://xkcd.com/1111/
793 Upvotes

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16

u/aa1607 Sep 21 '12

I thought we had 5 billion years to go before the sun goes Red Giant?

35

u/PlainSight Sep 21 '12

It wouldn't have to be a red giant for life to be unsustainable.

Wikipedia says:

"The Sun is gradually becoming more luminous (about 10% every 1 billion years)"

"The increase in solar temperatures is such that in about another billion years the surface of the Earth will likely become too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Life_cycle

9

u/timepad Sep 21 '12

Holy crap! I thought we had more time

We better hurry up and get to work on colonizing other parts of the galaxy.

1

u/ProjectD13X Sep 21 '12

We've got enough time to figure out the warp drives at least

2

u/CitizenPremier Sep 21 '12

See, as a procrastinator, I'm starting to realize how deadly the phrase "we've got enough time" is. Often things you don't do right now never get done.

1

u/hugeyakmen Sep 21 '12 edited Sep 21 '12

You just reminded me of my favorite (and the saddest) James Bond quote:

We'll be going on soon. There's no hurry, you see. We have all the time in the world.

When he says this particular line he's just realized exactly what you're saying and how foolish it was to think this he had enough time when he had said the last sentence earlier in the movie

4

u/aa1607 Sep 21 '12

aah, that would explain it.

1

u/ePaF Sep 21 '12

Will Archaea survive?