I mean when you make it as arbitrary as possible. The universe is terminally unstable and will be completely destroyed.
Bit of a nonsensical headline without timelines.

FTA:

The estimated lifespan of the outer solar system has been downgraded from 100 billion years to just a few billion years, according to a study that probed “terminal instability” during the Sun’s death.

Humanity is more terminally unstable, so we win!

Now we compete to rank which humans are most unstable!

This is how you end up with a new Hitler

FTA:

“Newton’s envisioned instability is real after all,” the team. “He was mistaken only about the perpetrator.”

The news isn't that the solar system will eventually collapse (the concept of entropy isn't new) but that the mass loss is not predictable and smooth and the impact of the irregular mass loss fucks with their orbit:

The recently measured white dwarf recoil demands asymmetric mass loss that is most readily attributed to discrete, independently directed ejections that impulsively perturb stellar motion.

Without a sun you don't have a solar system, the sun was never ever going to survive another 10 billion years yet alone 100. What a pointless study to point out the bleeding obvious.

I feel like I'm going up the ranks quickly.

People are acting like it's not a problem, but if we have just one more downgrade of that magnitude, we'll be in big trouble

Bit of a nonsensical headline if you refuse to read the article smh by head

Terminal instability refers to the mechanism by which the outer planets will be destroyed: changes to the sun's mass will change the planets orbit in asymmetrical ways, which will cause the planets to interfere with each other's orbits, furthering and speeding up the instability.

So do I hoard toilet paper?

anyway we have no clue what will happen when we collide with Andromeda galaxy in a few billions year, Maybe nothing, maybe orbit will be screwed, we don't know. And the sun will go red dwarf or something anyway in a few billions year. We will all be dead

The headline isn't the timeline change but the mechanism change. The researchers used new data from observing the death of a star and applied that behavior to a simulation of our own solar system to see the impact.

Updating models based on new data isn't pointless, it's fundamental to science.

Some 5 year old will hear about this and start panicking.

Oh no! A few billion years!

/s

Yeah, at that magnitude loss one more and we'd only have tens of millions of years left.

Me too, solar system, me too.

Let's just see if we get through 2026 first, guys.

This is the kind of headline you get when both astronomers and journalists are sleep deprived and the astronomers are grumpy about it.

does that mean I can quit my job and go on a hedonistic rampage?

Right along with quicksand and the Bermuda Triangle

The article's title should've focused on what 2/3 of it are written for: the beginning of life on Earth.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the solar system has been diagnosed with terminal instability and has been given a mere six billion years to live.

Actually longer than before, I suppose. The sun isn't expected to last more than 4bn years anyway, not to mention the collision with Andromeda might screw the system before the sun does.

A few billion years you say? Maybe about 5 Billion?

Well, they didn't poll me or anyone I know about this, so I'm a bit suspicious this study is true.

I think it might already have happened

Can't be bothered to find a source, but I remember hearing (probably from a Vsauce video or something like that) that it won't really affect our solar system. Even colliding with another galaxy, the space between stars is so ridiculously fucking huge that the chances of a celestial body getting close enough to pull our planets out of Sol's orbit is functionally zilch. It'll still be one hell of a night sky though…

Right, but the sun is going to grow into a red giant before then, so we’ve only got a few hundred million years. Better start preparing now!

Can’t make more if there aren’t any trees. Better stock up!

Whoever wins, we lose.

If an article's title doesn't make sense until after you read the article, then the title is meant to ensnare rather than inform. Aka click bait.

Not soon enough, unfortunately.

yup it would be an absolute beauty to see it!

Finally some good news.

It is unlikely the “collision” with Andromeda will screw the system as the solar system is dominated by the Sun’s gravity.

Humans are terminally unstable and will die within an average of 73 years. More at 11.

If, during the collision, a star or significantly large planet passes through the Solar System, it can wreck the gravity and slingshot stuff all over the place.

I think everyone would be understanding about this today, even.

Is SPF 50k good enough?

There's not really much greater chance of that happening during the Andromeda collision than there is during the routine churn of stellar existence in our galaxy anyway, though.

That episode was wildly optimistic. Earth will be uninhabitable by humans in around 250 million years and the oceans will be boiled away by the sun in 1 billion.

...Unless we destroy it sooner ourselves, of course.

Finally some good news.

If we stay around for another million years we may get to the point where we could increase the earth's orbit, allowing us to stay in the habitable zone for far longer.

The collision between the galaxies isn't even likely to cause any stars to intercept either galaxy. It likely won't affect us in that way, possibly in some other way I am unaware of, but not by stars colliding or getting too close.

If, yes, but unlikely.

250 million years.. you sir are an optimist...

As I said, that's if we don't do the job sooner.

True, if we somehow manage to not kill ourselves off it's possible we could change it or just leave the planet altogether.

More like 5 billion years. Plenty of time to for us to wipe out all life on Earth on our own without the sun being involved. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if humans somehow manage to break the sun before it can go red giant. Humanity's capacity to fuck shit up simply cannot be overestimated.