And you thought you were having a bad day?
Imagine this; You’re living on a planet somewhere. Then, all of the sudden, a blast of cosmic winds from the galaxy next door comes along, and toasts you, your planet, and all the other planets in your part of the galaxy. Sound far-fetched? It’s not. In fact, it’s happening right now. (Technically it happened 1.4 billion years ago, but we’re just now seeing it.)
MSNBC Science reports on how a jet of cosmic radiation including x-rays and gamma rays are hurling out of a massive black hole in one galaxy, and impacting stars and (assumed) solar systems in another galaxy right next to it. If this happened near Earth, this blast of cosmic radiation would strip away our ozone layer, and be lethal to life as we know it.
So the next time you catch yourself thinking about getting a cold because someone sneezed while in line with you at the store, take a moment and think about something 20,000 light years away the causing the extinction of all life on Earth in something akin to a giant cosmic cough.
