This weekend, whilst flipping channels in a moment of pure vegetableness (vegetablocity? veggiousness?), I came across a program on the Space channel delightfully named: Countdown to Doomsday. It was a documentary of sorts about all the possible ways in which planet Earth, and its inhabitants, could be wiped out. There were the usual suspects: asteroid collision, global warming, nuclear war. For pure entertainment value they also threw in sci-fi scenarios such as alien invasion and machines taking over the planet. Quaint, but really fodder for the comic book convention crowd.
The one that really stood out was a scientific phenomenon know as a gamma-ray burst.
A gamma-what? Sounds like something out of Star Trek.
Actually, my red-shirted friend, gamma-ray bursts are a real cosmic occurrence that in my humble estimation are the mother and father of all doomsday scenarios. Lending legitimacy to this compelling cosmic catastrophe were NASA scientists, people in lab coats, science show hosts and a pantload of terrifying scientific data.
Here's the scoop: Gamma radiation pulses are commonly associated with nuclear detonation. During the cold war, the United States military launched satellites into orbit with specially equipped sensors used to detect possible nuclear weapons tests. The Scientists were alarmed to discover that not only did the devices detect multiple gamma ray pulses, none of them emanated from earth. Upon further investigation, researchers discovered that the pulses were coming from distant space. The pulses were in fact gamma-ray bursts emanating from deep space (cue dramatic music).
Big deal, right?
Wrong. Gamma-ray bursts are millions of times more powerful than a nuclear explosion and can travel exceedingly long distances almost instantaneously. Such an event in our galaxy has the potential to vaporize our atmosphere and consequently wipe out all life on the surface of the planet.
I know, holy crap!
As it turns out, gamma-ray bursts occur regularly in our universe. At least one every 24 hours. The good news, from what scientists understand of the phenomena, is that they don't seem to happen within our galaxy.
Whew, right?
Wrong again. Just because it hasn't happened here doesn't mean it won't. Gamma-ray bursts are not uncommon in the universe but occurrences are extremely rare within a galaxy. That said, estimates are that galactic gamma-ray bursts occur once every billion or so years. Scientists are busily combing the planet looking for some evidence that Earth have may already sustained an impact from a gamma-ray burst. The burning question (pardon the pun) is: are we on the top end of that billion, or the bottom?
This is one of those charming nuggets of scientific knowledge that is hard to sort out in our heads. What does one do with the notion that the planet could be wiped out before we had a chance to say 'What the f--'?
The one good thing about this information is that it shakes us loose from our self-centred view of the planet. Nature, which includes the universe, really doesn't give a rat's behind about our political leanings, who our friends are, how successful we've become, if we can throw a ball or stop a puck. It doesn't care who wins an argument, makes it to work on time, or has a piece of paper that says we're smart, dumb or more important than everyone else.
All we've got is this earth and each other, that's it. It's probably a good idea to get our priorities straight by taking a good hard look at what we're doing to our own backyard and to one another. Having a healthy respect for nature, and particularly our place in it, wouldn't hurt.
Besides, it's not like we have anywhere else to go, and the rest of the universe doesn't seem quite as pleasant.
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