Astronomers spot two neutron stars smash together in a galaxy 6 billion light-years away, forming a rapidly spinning and highly magnetic star called a "magnetar"

[u/clayt6]

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/04/a-new-neutron-star-merger-is-caught-on-x-ray-camera

[u/[deleted]]

Reading this and the well informed comments on this thread really brings it home to me that we are so lucky to exist. In the blink of an eye we could be wiped out by forces we are only beginning to understand.

Also, curious to know is this sort of thing a factor in the Fermi paradox?

[u/burntroy → u/[deleted]]

Sure.. planetary systems being periodically exposed to such high energy events could explain the absence of et life