Oh good, the Earth may not be swallowed up by the expanding sun when it turns into a red giant in 7.5 billion years. This is per an article published by a Sussex University team, including Robert Smith, in the latest issue of Astronomy & Geophysics (which doesn't seem to be online yet), which argues that the lessened mass of the Sun will cause the Earth to move to a wider orbit and escape the sun's expansion. Another team has looked at the same possibility in a paper in Icarus last year. [via dangerousmeta]