“Early in the morning of January 23, 1999, a robotic telescope in New Mexico picked up a faint flash of light in the constellation Corona Borealis. Though just barely visible through binoculars, it turned out to be the most brilliant explosion ever witnessed by humanity. We could see it nine billion light-years away, more than halfway across the observable universe. If the event had instead taken place a few thousand light-years away, it would have been as bright as the midday sun, and it would have dosed Earth with enough radiation to kill off nearly every living thing.” Scientific American Magazine, December 2002, p.85
I suppose we should count our blessings that this explosion took place a great deal further than two thousand light-years away from us. But then I began to think that a sphere with a radius of two thousand light-years engulfs a tremendous volume of space. What are the chances that at least one civilization existed in the neighborhood of the explosion?
I was reminded by a short story titled, The Star, written some years ago by Arthur C. Clarke. If you’re still reading this post you might as well read the story. But do keep reading until the end. It can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/su_englit/clarke_star.html
As I read the Scientific American article I kept thinking of the artifacts left by the exterminated civilization in Clarke’s story:
"We have examined many of these records, and brought to life for the first time in six thousand years the warmth and beauty of a civilization that in many ways must have been superior to our own. Perhaps they only showed us the best, and one can hardly blame them. But their worlds were very lovely, and their cities were built with a grace that matches anything of man’s. We have watched them at work and play, and listened to their musical speech sounding across the centuries. One scene is still before my eyes—a group of children on a beach of strange blue sand, playing in the waves as children play on Earth. Curious whip-like trees line the shore, and some very large animal is wading in the shallows yet attracting no attention at all.
And sinking into the sea, still warm and friendly and life‑giving, is the sun that will soon turn traitor and obliterate all this innocent happiness."
I wonder if that sudden flash of light in 1999 marked the end of entire civilizations? The question leads me to consider my own destiny, our destiny as a species, and our destiny as a planet of genetic brothers. Millions of years of evolution halted in a chance deluge of intense gamma radiation…Would it all have been for naught?
Wittgenstein wrote in his Tractus:
“…eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.”
Michael