2004: "Sun and Earth"

[RGB-es]

https://xkcd.com/2004/

Alt Text: "But we don't need to worry about the boiling masses sandwiching the thin layer in which we live, since we're so fragile and short-lived that it's unlikely to kill us before something else does! Wait, why doesn't that sound reassuring?"

There was that episode of "Super Friends" on the '70s where the bad guys shot a rocket to the Sun in order to make a sun flare heading to the "justice hall" and destroy the Super Friends, why didn't they build a volcano instead? A lot easier. Those bad guys...

And yes, I'm old. And yes, cartoons from the '70s were weird.

[rhomboidal]

Current solar science provides slightly better understanding than "wrath of Apollo," but only slightly.

[cellocgw]

It could be worse. To my knowledge¹, the sun has yet to eject a mass of coronal zombies our way.


[1] admittedly limited

[DanAxtell]

Volcanic eruptions and solar flares have another commonality: They are the first search results for the phrase "beautiful eruption." So, their power and unpredictability may be cause for existential angst, but also for great beauty. Geysers also appear as a result both in the internet search and of unpredictable massive convective systems.

Helpful hint: Avoid going deep into the "beautiful eruption" internet search. TIL pimple popping videos is actually a thing.

[qvxb]

When there is actual danger, you will hear a deep, booming voice saying "Na, na na, na. Na, na, na, na. Hey, hey, goodbye."

[airdrik]

It is a nice day, today

It's days like today that make me glad that there is sufficient stability and (to an extent predictability) between the two that I can carve out a (to me at least) meaningful/enjoyable existence during the several dozen passes around the larger one that I get to experience.
Life just wouldn't get very far if they were insufficiently reliable to the extent that they regularly wiped out all life, forcing life to restart every couple hundred/thousand/both passes or so.

[SuicideJunkie]

Interestingly, the thin layer where we live is a completely- boiled massive convective system which blasts us with heat occasionally.

[commodorejohn]

...hey, it keeps us humble!

Oh wait, no it doesn't.