# News from the Universe

Source: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2024/05/12/news-from-the-universe
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/News-from-the-Universe?index=0x66406e0a96a4f0f9c8d7587ed7b1001d39a761b299664c5b33931aceb8a727c77638ec61
Submitted by misha on 2024-05-12 UTC, 1 upvote, 0 comments

## Summary

The author, who saw auroras in the Seattle area, argues that events like this are rare examples of news from the universe and that humanity has not yet registered on the rest of the universe. He lists four extraplanetary news events in just under 50 years: auroras in 2024, Betelgeuse dimming in 2019, the 'Oumuamua visit in 2017, and Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashing into Jupiter in 1994. He estimates a typical human life brings about 7 such events, and says the auroras were weather news rather than headline cosmic news. He also notes that NASA runs a space weather service with 30-minute updates.

## Article

I did not expect to see auroras in the Seattle area. Or ever in my life without a special bucket-list effort I had no particular intention of making. Though now I might. It feels a bit like I’ve just seen giraffes in the wild without going to Africa.

You’ve probably seen some of the thousands of photos being posted online. My wife’s contribution to the global photo collection is below. This is probably the most widely photographed geomagnetic storm in history, and it’s amazing how much better the latest phone cameras are than the naked eye. The photo is far more dramatic than it looked naked-eyed. It was still pretty great live though.

This is a rare example of news from the universe. Not counting predictable events like eclipses and periodic comets, or events manufactured by humans via space missions, actual news from beyond our planet is rare. This unexpected aurora treat belongs on a very short list of newsworthy events from beyond our planet in my life so far:

Auroras 2024

Betelgeuse dimming in 2019

The Oumuamua visit in 2017

Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashing into Jupiter in 1994

If you disregard telescopic events, only 2 of these count. The universe is a pretty uneventful place from the perspective of our blink of an existence in it so far. Only a few naked-eye supernovas have ever been observed in all recorded human history. I’d like to witness one but I’m not hopeful.

To turn it around, so far the existence of humanity has not registered on the rest of the universe at all either. We don’t get much news out here on our backwater planet, and aren’t newsworthy on any meaningful cosmic scale yet.

“Mostly harmless” indeed.

Or here is another bit of perspective: I’ve experienced 4 extraplanetary news events in just under 50 years of life. Which means in a typical human life you can expect maybe 7. Up to maybe 10 if you live long during a particularly eventful blink of the universe’s eye. If you witnessed auroras this week, there’s a good chance this is the peak for you. You’re stuck on this boring planet where basically nothing ever happens on interesting cosmic scales.

Worse: this lifetime highlight bit of cosmic news is weather news. We don’t get headline stuff out here.

I learned that NASA runs a space weather service with exciting 30-minute updates. Mostly about local sun. And that I mostly saw high-altitude oxygen emission radiation. I saw mostly red with some green. I saved this chart from some random tweet. (Source: alienyrox2 on Reddit it seems; ht Crul in the comments).