Talk:2469: Astronomy Status Board

I don't think the two characters shown in the comic are necessarily junior astronomers. The title text seems more like a comment on how people new to a field would want to do big and exciting things, and groan when told they need to do boring but essential tasks. DrPumpkinz (talk) 04:35, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Anyone else going to make the Destiny reference? Just me? Cool. 172.69.35.111 06:08, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

The two phrases, "still there" and "gone" are from the movie "before midnight 2013" when they were watching the sunset. --Eta (talk) 06:36, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

I was thinking that (as well as the obvious Big Rip of hard(-probably) science) there might be an oblique reference to the old (19thC?) Verne/Wells-ish tale I cannot remember the true title and author of, in which an amateur astronomer becomes aware (through being one of the few knowledgable people observing on a given night - somehow almost globally cloudy?) that the Moon is in the wrong position. Derived from this (and its later return to where it should have been, plus other observed effects from the stars to the tides) is developed a new theological science of a divine flaw (a bit like a misplaced stone in the desert of 505) that can then be divinely corrected. (i.e. science effectively is 'the planets being pushed around by angels', with mystical and natural causes being the same). - Though the fact I have to explain all the differences from mere presence/absence (and Google-Fu failing me when I try to ID the story) makes this much less likely to even be involved in the conception. Still, mentioning it in case it interests, or someone can do the YASID for me. ;) 141.101.98.38 11:05, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

When seeing the comic the first thing that came into my head was http://www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com which gives a similar more or less obvious status report. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 11:30, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Luckily they don't have indicators for individual pulsars. Those would be way more effort to maintain. Fabian42 (talk) 12:26, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

... they may want to add a couple moons to the list. ;-) https://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos361.html 162.158.89.57 13:35, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

I would be a lot less concerned about this if I weren't currently reading Seveneves... 172.68.57.91 15:13, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

This would have been very cool if he'd released the comic earlier in the week, and briefly changed the moon's status to "gone" 162.158.75.14 20:26, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

If the universe will continue expanding, other galaxies, while not technically "gone", will either move so far away we wouldn't be able to see them OR merge with our own galaxy. -- Hkmaly (talk) 21:46, 29 May 2021 (UTC)

Bloated explanation?

Is it just me, or does someone else think that the current explanation is bloated? I mean to actually explain/understand the comic everything below the current third paragraph isn't needed, imo. All other paragraphs do say something about why the objetcs listed may or may not suddenly disappear but I guess for the understanding of the comic the thirds' paragraph notion "are expected to last for bilions more" is absolutely sufficient. I propose to move everything below that paragraph into trivia section. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 10:33, 30 May 2021 (UTC)

I moved it Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 08:46, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

Is it possible that the "sun" and "moon" still being there is a reference to the lunar eclipse that happened last Wednesday?

Ironically, I got a 503 error when I first visited this page, so maybe ExplainXKCD needs its own status board. 172.69.71.88 17:26, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

https://astronomystat.us/ is now a thing. You're welcome. jessews (talk) 19:21, 31 May 2021 (UTC)