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Randall Munroe

@xkcd.com

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 7h

Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer xkcd.com/3304/

4-panel comic. (1) April 2023: [JUICE space probe flying away from Earth] FROM EARTH: *JUICE* is en route to explore the icy moons of Jupiter! JUICE: *Wheee!* (2) August 2024: [JUICE flying past Earth] JUICE: ...So which planet was I visiting again? I got distracted. FROM EARTH: Jupiter! JUICE: Right, OK. (3) September 2026: [JUICE flies past Earth again] JUICE: Is Jupiter the one with all the rings? Or... FROM EARTH: No, the big one near it. JUICE: Got it! (4) January 2029: [JUICE returning to fly past Earth again] JUICE: And *which* moons am I looking at? FROM EARTH: Oh my *god*. FROM EARTH: Now I get why we budgeted for so many Earth flybys.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 29/09/2026

Slab Graveyard xkcd.com/3303/

4-panel comic. (1) PERSON 1: Any plans for Halloween? PERSON 2 with beret: Me and my friends are gonna check out a slab graveyard! (2) PERSON 1: What’s that? PERSON 2: When dense crust subducts, geologists think it might pile up at the bottom of the mantle. [illustration of Person 2’s related theory] (3) PERSON 2: We’re going to hide in the crust and ride it down to see. Wanna come? It’s gonna be spooky! (4) PERSON 1: Won’t that take millions of years? PERSON 2: Lots of time for ghost stories! PERSON 1: I think I’m good. PERSON 2: Too spooky? I understand.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 25/09/2026

Voyager Instruments xkcd.com/3302/

3-panel comic. (1) [Person with shoulder-length hair gestures at diagrams on wall in front of table with three people.] PERSON 1: As the radioactive power source on *Voyager 1* weakens, we’ve been turning instruments off to conserve power. (2) PERSON 1: Only two instruments remain. Do we want to lose the plasma wave subsystem or the magnetometer? (3) PERSON 2 with ponytail: You know, if we just turned off Greg’s LED underlighting– PERSON 4 with short hair: Absolutely not. PERSON 3: Dammit, Greg. PERSON 4: I will *not* allow us to look uncool in front of aliens.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 24/09/2026

Stargazing 5 xkcd.com/3301/

4-panel comic. (1) [Black background with person with shoulder-length hair with raised arms in front in white, with figures in gray in the background.] PERSON 1: Welcome to stargazing! I’m back, despite efforts by astronomers who hate cool space facts to cover me up so I can’t see the sky anymore! Nice try, losers! Next time buy a tarp that’s harder to chew through! (2) [Person looks toward binoculars in hand.] PERSON 1: Now, let’s spy on some stars! Does everyone have binoculars? If you don’t, find someone looking at birds and try to grab theirs. Stars are the birds of the sky. (3) [Close-up on Person but with white background.] PERSON 1: But stars aren’t the only weird lights. Sometimes the sky fills with rippling colors. That’s the sky’s screensaver. It’s very pretty, so don’t move your mouse and ruin it. (4) [Switch back to black background, person points up while figures in background look toward where she’s pointing.] PERSON 1: That blob is a comet. People used to think they were harbingers of doom. We now know they’re boring, so we have to find new reasons to use the word “harbinger.” I’m a harbinger of astronomy! Cool facts are nigh!

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 22/09/2026

Tyrannosaurus xkcd.com/3300/

Comic. [Person with long hair pointing to diagram with Tyrannosaurus Rex standing next to a person.] PERSON: We now believe the primary prey of Tyrannosaurus Rex was these humans who kept standing next to it for scale.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 17/09/2026

Summer xkcd.com/3299/

4-panel comic. (1) [Person swings from tree over water.] (2) [In the middle of the swing, the tree’s leaves have turned brown.] (3) [When the person lets go, the tree is bare of leaves and everywhere is covered in ice or snow.] (4) [The person landed on the ice looks behind at Person 2 with shoulder-length hair standing on the snow.] PERSON 2: Summer over already, huh? PERSON 1: It seemed extra quick this year.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 16/09/2026

Aerospace Flowchart xkcd.com/3298/

Comic: Aerospace Engineer Problem-Solving Flowchart. [Start→Could we solve this problem by building giant airships again?→(No)→Try other solutions→(four arrows leading off-panel)]

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 15/09/2026

If you put a toaster in a freezer, which wins? Watch the latest What If? video in collaboration with @minuteearth.bsky.social! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VG0...

youtube.com

If you put a toaster in a freezer, which wins?

YouTube video by xkcd's What If?

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 14/09/2026

OH Scale xkcd.com/3297/

Comic. [Next to a two-story house and some trees is a huge rail (several times the height of the house) with an incomplete huge wheel on top surrounded by scaffolding.] [caption] Due to a typo in the plans, I’ve been building an 87:1 model train set in my yard.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 11/09/2026

Fault Taunting xkcd.com/3296/

4-panel comic. (1) [Giant fishing rod-like cat toy positioned above four tectonic plates. Two helicopters that appear tiny due to scale fly above. People next to device are so tiny they cannot be seen.] PERSON 1: The key to exposing new geologic layers is understanding the three forces driving plate movement: slab pull, ridge push, and taunting. (2) PERSON 2: Taunting? What do– PERSON 1: *Initiate thrust fault pattern!* [The dangly end of the toy wiggles.] (3) “Rumble” sound effect from tectonic plates. (4) “Lunge!” sound effect from tectonic plates. [Plates split at a diagonal angling toward toy.]

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 10/09/2026

Semaphore xkcd.com/3295/

Comic. [Two identical machines face each other with a gap between them. Each is mounted on a box with a cable connecting it off-panel, webcams pointed at each other, and two flags at different angles that can move.] [caption] Networking tip: Separate sensitive components with a semaphore gap.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 10/09/2026

Asteroid Mission xkcd.com/3294/

4-panel comic. (1) [Announcer with medium-length hair in front of screen showing rocket.] ANNOUNCER: The asteroid is headed for Earth, but a mission has been launched to intercept it. (2) [Two people with space helmets and carrying equipment rush out of spacecraft landed on asteroid.] (3) [People connecting laptop to asteroid.] (4) [Laptop message reads >NOCLIP *ON*]

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 08/09/2026

Handedness xkcd.com/3293/

Comic. [Two people considering diagrams on whiteboard] PERSON 1 with ponytail: The W bosons produced by the collider beam will mostly be left-handed. PERSON 2: So we should send in a *right*-handed batter.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 04/09/2026

Geology Class xkcd.com/3292/

4-panel comic. (1) [Person with ponytail addressing students seated at desks.] PERSON 1 with ponytail: Welcome to Geology 201. Today we’ll be review-bombing Applebees. (2) [Person 1 points to board on wall.] PERSON 1: Tomorrow we’ll do Costco and Sephora. PERSON 2: Why? PERSON 1: If we cut traffic to the Northgate Shopping Center, it will go to the East Plaza instead. (3) [Board shows map.] This will push the state to cancel the North Bridge Project and shift funds to the Highway 2 Extension... (4) ...creating new roadcuts through Triassic shale. PERSON 2: I *like* Applebees. PERSON 1: Then you should have told the city to approve my dig permit.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 03/09/2026

Launchpad xkcd.com/3291/

Comic. [Two large engines on the ground upside-down, with spacecraft pod in between.] PERSON to another person: To reduce the spacecraft’s weight, we’re mounting the engines on the launchpad and having them push the *Earth* away from the *spacecraft*.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 02/09/2026

Trade xkcd.com/3290/

Comic. [Person standing holding hammer above raised knee.] PERSON: Listen up, leg. I’ve been sending you rich, oxygenated blood for years, while you send me worthless used-up blood with no oxygen. Time to teach you a lesson about not ripping me off! [caption] Tariffs

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 01/09/2026

Highway Signs xkcd.com/3289/

Comic. [sign on road reads Next Exit: 1,390,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The number on the speed limit sign in front of it is 0.000000097] [caption] Our local highway department is switching to planck units.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 31/08/2026

Archery Feat xkcd.com/3288/

Comic. [person drawing bow and arrow in front of a line of twelve axes, in front of a person seated on the ground with an apple on their head, in front of an archery target with an arrow in the bullseye that has been split by another arrow.] [caption] I want to prove that my new protagonist is a better shot than all those other protagonists.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 28/08/2026

Perseids xkcd.com/3287/

4-panel comic. (1) [Three people. The person on the left has shoulder-length hair; the person on the right has a white hat.] PERSON 1: I’m sad that we missed the Perseids. PERSON 2 with hat: There’s still the Geminids. PERSON 1: Yeah, but they’re in December. (2) PERSON 1: The Perseids happen when it’s warm enough to lie outside with a blanket, and we found a good mosquito-free beach. So we just lie around watching the stars and eating snacks. One year we saw the aurora. (3) PERSON 3 with shoulder-length hair: You know, I think I heard that the Perseids might be late this year. PERSON 2: Yeah, actually, I heard that too. (4) Later… [Three people lying down gazing up at stars in dark sky. One meteor is in the sky.] PERSON 3: Hm, seems like a normal number of meteors. Guess I heard wrong. PERSON 1: Maybe the Perseids are *next* weekend. PERSON 2: Oh, good thinking. Let’s come back then, just in case.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 27/08/2026

Particle Physics Equipment xkcd.com/3286/

Comic: Particle Physics Equipment by how much it sounds like an offering at a high-end spa in a sci-fi/fantasy novel. Line graph increasing to the right. Geiger counter, Cherenkov detector, Photomultiplier tube, linear accelerator, scintillation counter. [small gap] Ion chamber [small gap] Cyclotron [extremely large gap] Bubble chamber, cloud chamber.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 26/08/2026

What if Earth’s Water Suddenly Disappeared? Watch the latest What If? video in collaboration with @minuteearth.bsky.social! www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZVt...

youtube.com

What if Earth’s Water Suddenly Disappeared?

YouTube video by xkcd's What If?

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 25/08/2026

The xkcd store has returned, with a variety of shirts, stickers, and posters! Check it out here: store.xkcd.com

The XKCD store IS BACK: store.xkcd.com. Art with common stick figure characters from xkcd.

With new designs... (includes what if? dinosaur on top of plane sticker and shirts with "no thanks I'm in the control group" and problems vs. comparable universe comic)

...and old favorites (includes shirts with compiling comic design, colors on this shirt pie chart, stand back I'm going to try science, and correlation comic)

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 24/08/2026

Accretionary Arc xkcd.com/3285/

4-panel comic. (1) [Two people running] PERSON 1: They’re right behind us! PERSON 2 with ponytail: It’s OK! I have a plan. (2) [zoomed out view of group with weapons chasing first two people as they reach a small object on the ground] PERSON 2: This part of the continent used to be an island arc before it collided with North America. (3) [Person 1 looking behind as Person 2 hits buttons on small pillar sticking out of the Earth that makes a “beep beep” sound] PERSON 2: Just gotta access the control panel… Yes! It still works! Okay, full reverse! (4) [zoomed out view of map of east coast of North America. There is a jagged edge on the northeast, and an island with a jagged edge has separated from it.] FROM CONTINENT: *No!* FROM ISLAND: *HAH!*

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 14/08/2026

Geology Building xkcd.com/3284/

Comic. [A college building labeled “Department of Geology” with a diagonal slash through center making it look uneven.] [caption] The administration regretted giving the geology department free rein to design their new building.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 13/08/2026

Size and Lifespan xkcd.com/3283/

Comic. [Graph with size in kg on x axis (10^-10 to 10^40) and lifespan in seconds on y axis (10^0 to 10^20). A scatter plot with an approximately linear arc shows points in all different colors: white blood cells, yellowjackets, gray wolves, blue whales, a slash from top to bottom for black holes, Red Sea, Greenland, a smaller slash for red dwarfs and blue giants.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 11/08/2026

Trick Play xkcd.com/3282/

Comic. [diagram of a football field with people on each team represented as O or X. Arrows and dotted lines between players indicate passing or dribbling, but at one point a player simultaneously passes to two different players who both shoot at the goal; the goalie can only defend against one.] [caption] The math department team’s opponents hate it when Banach passes to Tarski.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 07/08/2026

Antiques Roadshow xkcd.com/3281/

Comic. [Two people with tiny star floating above display on table.] PERSON 1 with ponytail: Now, your grandmother said this was a relic low-mass population III star, from the first generation of stars. Unfortunately, the high iron content shows that it formed much later, after several rounds of supernovas. I’m afraid it’s a population I star. PERSON 2: Aw, darn. Well, it still has sentimental value. [banner for Antiques Roadshow]

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 06/08/2026

I really recommend the 2022 documentary “It’s Quieter in the Twilight,” which profiles the scientists working in relative obscurity to keep the Voyager spacecraft operating—many of them past retirement age, but unwilling to quit until the Voyagers do. It was very sweet and thought-provoking.

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xkcd.com @xkcd.com · 04/08/2026

Maze xkcd.com/3280/