So, here's a question: does anyone know or think that there has been such a near-Sol event since life has appeared on Earth, or is this likely to be the first time?
I'm just wondering. Many people here seem to think that this will be no big deal, but this isn't like a hurricane or a blizzard which people live through several times in a lifetime and have become used to.
We all tend to think we will likely live to a ripe old age, even though we know that a random event could kill you at any moment. We are almost certain that the human race will outlive each of us almost indefinitely. After all, we've all seen people die, but we've never seen us all go extinct; we have no frame of reference. (We did witness the extinction of the Neanderthal people very recently, but it's not recorded and has slipped from our collective memory.)
But logically speaking, we could be hit by a gama ray burst at any minute and not see it coming, or this particular star could cause very unpredictable things to happen to the Earth, and that would be it. We all die, and the aliens out there staring at the sky wondering who's out here will never hear from us. All of human history becomes irrelevant ( Unless V'ger comes to life).
It doesn't fit our pre-conceived, not to mention quite comfortable, view of our species' role in the scheme of the cosmos, but it's certainly possible.
