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> Well, the pyramids will last a long, long time. If there were more rain in Egypt, they’d erode away in a few tens of thousands of years, but no matter what, t

> Well, the pyramids will last a long, long time. If there were more rain in Egypt, they’d erode away in a few tens of thousands of years, but no matter what, they’re going to be here for a long, long time. Most of our other stuff, however, won’t last a thousand years. Except for marbles. I remember reading a piece about a decade ago about how the last trace of human civilization that will (likely) survive, for BILLIONS of years, are our satellites. Actually, just found it: https://www.wired.com/2012/10/the-last-pictures/ https://www.wired.com/2012/10/the-last-pictures/ This isn't to detract from a great piece. Just adding this thought.

dumbfoundded 6y ago
That's a cool thought. I always imagined it be something like a the K-T boundary (1), a thin layer of rock that looks different than all of the other layers. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_boundary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_b...
ericbarrett 6y ago
Interesting proposition regarding satellites. I have to wonder, though. What about: Debris from satellites breaking up, causing a very slow Kessler-type syndrome—over these time scales there will certainly be millions of close encounters with random objects Kinetic changes from similar gravity perturbations, leading to highly eccentric orbits which then decay into the atmosphere Solar flares—I imagine in the next few hundred million years we'll get some doozies, with similar kinetic effects Solar expansion—in about a billion years, the Sun will have expanded enough that liquid water can't exist on Earth's surface anymore. Won't that massively expand the atmosphere and drag satellites down a lot faster, even at geosynchronous orbits? I can definitely see "millions," but "billions" feels hyperbolic.
- pixl97 6y ago
  I think that you thinking of near earth sats. There are many others like the solar observatory that are much farther out and are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in the gigayear range.
  - ericbarrett 6y ago
    You mean the SDO [0]? It's still in geostationary orbit. Which, of course, is much farther out than LEO, and orders of magnitude less affected by the Earth's atmo, but still interacts with it. Heck, even the Moon is probably affected by it [1]. Perhaps a solar orbit—I didn't consider that when I wrote my first comment. But the plates described in the article aren't going there, they're going to GEO. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory [1] https://phys.org/news/2020-09-earth-oxygen-rusted-moon-billions.html https://phys.org/news/2020-09-earth-oxygen-rusted-moon-billi...
sunstone 6y ago
If the satellites you're thinking of are the Voyagers then yes, though they won't be near here.

dumbfoundded 6y ago

That's a cool thought. I always imagined it be something like a the K-T boundary (1), a thin layer of rock that looks different than all of the other layers. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_boundary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_b...

ericbarrett 6y ago

Interesting proposition regarding satellites. I have to wonder, though. What about: Debris from satellites breaking up, causing a very slow Kessler-type syndrome—over these time scales there will certainly be millions of close encounters with random objects Kinetic changes from similar gravity perturbations, leading to highly eccentric orbits which then decay into the atmosphere Solar flares—I imagine in the next few hundred million years we'll get some doozies, with similar kinetic effects Solar expansion—in about a billion years, the Sun will have expanded enough that liquid water can't exist on Earth's surface anymore. Won't that massively expand the atmosphere and drag satellites down a lot faster, even at geosynchronous orbits? I can definitely see "millions," but "billions" feels hyperbolic.

pixl97 6y ago
I think that you thinking of near earth sats. There are many others like the solar observatory that are much farther out and are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in the gigayear range.
- ericbarrett 6y ago
  You mean the SDO [0]? It's still in geostationary orbit. Which, of course, is much farther out than LEO, and orders of magnitude less affected by the Earth's atmo, but still interacts with it. Heck, even the Moon is probably affected by it [1]. Perhaps a solar orbit—I didn't consider that when I wrote my first comment. But the plates described in the article aren't going there, they're going to GEO. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory [1] https://phys.org/news/2020-09-earth-oxygen-rusted-moon-billions.html https://phys.org/news/2020-09-earth-oxygen-rusted-moon-billi...

sunstone 6y ago

If the satellites you're thinking of are the Voyagers then yes, though they won't be near here.