The Koala, Camel and Cow
This isn't an ancient tale of animals designed to teach you some moral in life, but rather, an example of the extreme nature of the universe we live in, that while we enjoy the lovely benign environment given to us by our position in the Milky Way, and our long lived G type star, experiencing only a miniscule number of years compared to the timespan of the universe, out there is where the real action is taking place.
In October 2020, astronomers detected a massive explosion, billions of light years from us, it peaked within a few days and appeared to vanish from view, although that was only in the visible light.
These massive explosions are known as FBOTs or Fast Blue Optical Transient events, and have been a bit of a mystery.
One theory is, that when a giant star collapses and forms a super dense fast spinning neutron star, or even a black hole, the radiation and subsequent explosion is what causes these FBOTs.
Truth is, nobody knows for sure, but the last three events have been termed the Cow, Camel and the Koala, named after the objects astronomical designation. Eg .. ZTF20acigmel became Camel, I guess it's just easier to say.
What was detected in the latest event from Camel, was a big increase in radio waves just after the optical burst, and scientists think this could be a near light speed shock wave hitting dense material just outside of the once stars system.
It's a reminder that for all we know about the universe, there's still so much more to find out, so much more for new generations of astronomers and scientists to discover.
