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March 1, 2006
A 33 minute "mystery" explosion. . .
Ok, I'll be the first to admit that space is big, I mean really really big, so mind boggling BIG. . . . OK OK, I know, Douglas Adams admitted it first, and probably someone before him, but I'm just saying here that "space is big".
Being that space is so big, there's alot, and by alot, I almost all, that we DON'T know about space and what's out there in the inky black.
So it's no surprise that there are "mysteries" out there that Earthly science can't explain, but this little tid bit made me sit up and take a minute to say. . . "Uh oh, this can't be good."
Now you can dismiss this as paranoia, or whatever, but I'll be frank. The first thing I thought about when I read this article was that some civilization 440 million light years from us decided that they REALLY REALLY REALLY had had enough with those guys over there on the other side of their planet and decided to nuke them into oblivion. This resulted in a counterstrike by the other guys which effectively obliterated the civilization.
What did it for me was the time, 33 minutes. Just about the amount of warning you get when you fire a ballistic missile from one hemisphere of the planet at the opposite hemisphere. So one side popped off, the other side saw it coming, and they popped off, the result???? 33 minutes of gamma rays bursting out into the universe.
I'm comforted in a way. Comforted by the thought that there's one less civiliation out there ahead of us looking for other civilizations (like ours) to enslave. I, for one, DO NOT welcome any new Intergalactic Imperial Overlords, thank you.
In another way I'm deeply disturbed. If in fact, this was an alien civilization blowing itself away 440 million years ago, that means that 440 million years ago, there was a civilization out there playing with nuclear weapons. That definately doesn't make me feel good on any level. It only means we're WAY BEHIND in the galactic arms race and for every civilization out there blowing itself away, there's probably one, two, ten or 600 million that figured out that there were little green blue orbs (like ours) out there pumping out reruns of I Love Lucy and the phrase "Lucy! I'm home!" in their language actually means "Hey you, come kick our ass!" The thought of Andy Griffith being a beacon for little green men with nasty dispositions has kept me up at night more than once.
Yes, my dear readers, when I look up in the night sky I don't see pretty stars and friendly constellations, I see big interplanetary battle cruisers manned by really pissed off aliens from some star like 51 Pegasi looking for semi-intelligent bipedal ape-like creatures to enslave.
Ok Ok, I'm half kidding, but I'm also half serious. I'm in no way shape or form under the impression that we're alone out there in the inky black. I'm actually quite certain that we're not alone. I'm also not one of those that subscribes to a theory that any intelligent alien civilization would be friendly to us. In fact, I think that the odds are much better that they'd just want our rock and we'd just be cockroaches to them until we master some form of faster than light travel and can build our own interstellar battle cruisers. Until then, I feel comfortable embracing my fear of aliens coming to waste us.
That's why I'm smiling just a little bit at the thought of some alien civilization blowing itself to smithereens. It just means the odds of us making it went up just a tiny bit. Of course then I think about the insects that survived nuclear armageddon on that rock 440 million light years ago/away and I wonder how far along the Army is in developing the Starship Trooper's Powered Armor.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at March 1, 2006 12:15 AM
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Comments
My attitude is this. There is no possible way that we can say we know everything. We.don't. So, unless someone can prove to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are alone. I leave all options open.
I love space. I think I love it so much because it is such a mystery to us. I'm sure we still have many surprises ahead of us up there.
I'm not in a hurry to discover other beings either. We already have enough problems with those we know about. ;-)
Posted by: Christine at March 1, 2006 1:16 AM
What scares me most is how you posted this from 20 days in the future!
How'd you do that??!?!
(BTW, your future date is screwing up the combloggeration :( )
Posted by: 3choboomer at March 1, 2006 9:30 AM
Whoops, that's what I get for playing with my calendar to plan a trip.
Sorry bout that. FIXED.
--Jason
Posted by: Jason Coleman at March 1, 2006 3:11 PM
