Do you stay up at night worrying about the Heat Death of the Universe? No, neither do I because I know that is not how the Universe is going to die. Current theory runs toward "The Big Rip", where Dark Energy simply pushes the cosmos too far, causing it to explode into nothingness (I think that theory still needs a lot of work), or the Universe will never die, expansion lasting forever to the point that every galaxy becomes monstrously isolated in a limitless void, or the Big Bang cycle eventually turns into the Big Contraction cycle, gravity finally winning over expansion energy with the Universe falling back in on itself to a primal point, thus triggering a new Big Bang. Whatever the end result, the End of the Universe is a bit too vast a concept for my astrophysical reflections. If I worry at all about an astrophysical concept, it is about "astricide." Astricide is a word I have coined for the
murder of stars, similar to our words homicide, matricide, fratricide, you get the idea. I believe that our search for extraterrestrial life is highly misguided because we are ignoring the most obvious signs of it, signs that are staring us in the face, signs we refuse to recognize. The Universe is heavily, densely populated with lifeforms, we even circle one of them, Sol. Yes, I think stars are the most prevalent life form in the Universe. Look at the evidence: stars are grouped into communities or cities, i.e. galaxies. Galaxies are grouped into larger communities, i.e. states or nations. These supergroups all keep a remarkable cohesion due to gravity and all circle each other or drift together in a pattern generally far beyond our comprehension. 
However, the basic premise is there, and the Universe is packed. Our home community, the Milky Way, has somewhere around one hundred billion "citizens" (a medium-small population, think Portland, Oregon), all more or less under the rule of our own tyrant, the Galactic Center black hole. It is now known that every galaxy has a black hole at its center, keeping the community together. Our neighboring tyrants have banded together to form a kind of league (about forty galaxies and their accompanying tyrants), our Local Group. Our Local Group is a member, with other Groups, of the larger aggregate known as the Virgo SuperCluster, so named because the Virgo Cluster (two thousand member galaxies) dominates the assembly. Our local group is a kind of "poor country relation", far out in the suburbs. If it is of any help, you may think of this entire structuring process in the light of ancient Greek city-state politics and its place in the larger Mediterranean civilizations scheme. Our minds are not really built to grasp the concepts 
involved: i.e. if you symbolize Sol (the Sun, not Earth) as a marble lying on a sidewalk in New York City, then our nearest neighboring star is a similar marble on a sidewalk in Washington, D.C. After that, the next nearest neighbor is a marble lying on a sidewalk in Rio de Janiero. So you see, just in talking about our very nearest neighbors, the distances are really too vast to understand. When you start discussing galaxies and groupings of galaxies and groupings of groupings of galaxies, it all becomes unreasonably distant. Back to the point - astricide. Stars are violent entities, born, living and dying in thermonuclear fusion, with both their births and deaths due to the master of the Universe, gravity. Even if a star is not the victim of exterior violence, its peaceful existence is problematic. 
Main Sequence stars range from red dwarfs to blue supergiants, coolest to hottest, least luminous to most luminous.Sol is a yellow dwarf (G2), not a big boy on the block, but not a puny weakling getting sand kicked in his face, either. Main Sequence stars also run from long, unspectacular lives (smaller, cooler) to short, showy and very spectacular existences (bigger, hotter). Presuming that Sol is not the victim of astricide, he will die in about five billion years in a fashion typical for his type - he will swell to a red giant (cooler but immense as he burns helium, having no more hydrogen, in a desperate bid to stay alive) whose size will engulf space just beyond the orbit of Earth, then he will collapse ("retire") to become a white dwarf, about the size of Earth, cooling down to his grave. One can hope that he will be content to have 
lived a productive but unremarkable life. Some of his fellow workers (other yellow dwarfs and similar stars) will have, however, a different end, because they are partners in a binary system. Binary systems are, in fact, more common than single stars. The white dwarf, due to its intense gravity, will draw in its larger partner and begin siphoning off material in a giant swirl until it has eaten too much and then it will explode in a spectacular fashion, a Type 1A supernova. Type2 supernovae are quite different. Type2 supernovae require a star to be at least nine times the mass of Sol. These larger stars, with much more energy at their command, can continue to burn their cores past helium all the way to iron, which is the 
limit of their powers. The core collapses, the supernova explodes (the violent shedding of all outer layers) and the core becomes a neutron star. A massive core may well become a black hole after further collapse. Neutron stars that spin rapidly emit highly directional beams of energy and are known as pulsars (quasars and blazars are not stars but galaxies with hyperactive nuclei). Magnetars are massive (not too massive) neutron stars that have unusually strong magnetic fields, along the lines of one thousand trillion times the magnetic field of the Earth. After Type2 supernovae come the really big boys, one class at above fifty times solar mass, and then, finally, the mutants at over one hundred fifty to two hundred solar masses. The former collapse directly into black holes (no neutron core stage) and are called collapsars, while the latter are simply too big to do even that, they simply explode in the largest explosion possible in the Universe after the Big Bang, throwing out twenty to twenty five 
solar masses of pure iron into the Universe. An example of this latter category was 2006GY, which had roughly two hundred solar masses. Finally, there are brown dwarfs, which never ignited at all, a kind of giant Jupiter, or failed star. So, once again, back to astricide. Having cited the "normal" deaths of stars, let us look at their murder. Stars may be murdered in a variety of ways. Many solitary stars have no fixed place in their galaxies and wander, erring here and there as the whim guides them. It is possible, though not probable, that a white dwarf could wander this way and be attracted by the gravity of Sol. As it gets closer and closer, it speeds up. Because of its wandering behavior, the white dwarf does not settle into a binary partnership with Sol but plunges straight into his body. The effect would be catastrophic - Sol would explode in approximately one hour. Goodbye, Earth, as well as the entire solar system. Another scenario is that a pulsar, quasar or blazar could, 
serendipitously, happen to direct its beam of intense gamma ray emission directly at Sol, provoking a runaway reaction in both the chromosphere and the core, resulting in a premature nova and again, goodbye solar system. If the said gamma ray beam were to pinpoint Earth, by chance, we would be immediately incinerated and the planet would melt into a superheated ball of lava which its own gravity would find difficult to manage, thus probably flying apart like boiling soup exploding from a pressure cooker. There are many other scenarios in which a star may be prematurely killed, all quite unpleasant. The civilization of our Universe, however, has no body of laws governing such criminal behavior and thus the culprit goes unpunished. Which brings into question, is astricide therefore a crime? If it has never been legislated against, can it be considered criminal? On the television series "Stargate SG-1", in one episode one of the main characters blows up a star using alien technology in order to wipe out an enemy fleet. She thus commits astricide and is quite proud of her accomplishment. In my opinion, she should have been tried and found guilty of astricide. So there you have not only an Astronomy 101 lesson but the reason I lie awake at night worrying. There will be a quiz at the next class session. When I was very young, I wanted to be one of two things, either an astronomer or an egyptologist. It quickly became clear to me that my lack of scientific drive and mathematical superability ruled out becoming an astrophysicist. Egyptology was impractical for a variety of other reasons. I have, nevertheless, retained a ruling passion for both fields and stay abreast of current developments. Two ideas that fascinate me are the possibility of harnessing solar energy efficiently to benefit 
civilizations orbiting their parent stars. One is posited by Larry Niven, a fiction writer, who describes a society technologically advanced enough to destroy many of the planets in a solar system and use them to construct a giant ring around the sun, at an appropriate orbiting distance. The ring rotates, providing gravity, and the vastly increased available land face on the interior of the ring benefits fully from direct solar emission. A more ambitious idea was proposed by Freeman Dyson, who posited a spherical net made of solar energy collectors around the home star. Called a Dyson Sphere, it was later elaborated 
to become the construction of an entire enclosing shell around the parent star, with the raw material again coming from the destruction of the solar system planets. Here the habitable landmass is enormously increased over the ring, no solar energy is lost, and it has the advantage of hiding your star from prying neighbors or conquest-bent invaders. Please be sure to call me if they ever find evidence of one of these in observable space. The History Channel has/had an excellent series called "The Universe", rent some of the discs if the subject interests you. As for me, when I finally get some astroworry-free sleep, I shall begin the search for my Halloween costume this year. I am thinking of dressing as one of the Roswell Grey aliens, carrying only a Doc Johnson® anal probe and preaching my new religion, The Path of Totality.Meanwhile, back on Earth . . . . I continue to be amazed at the brazenness and sheer hubris of the human race.
There is a commercial in Europe aimed at global business, singing the praises of outsourcing in Macedonia. It goes on to rhapsodize over the fact that the gross monthly salary in Macedonia is 430€/$559 a month (before the Recession), and that is before taxes. Looking for a place to exploit? Come to Macedonia! Elsewhere, the United Arab Emirates has acknowledged the veracity of a video showing a member of the ruling family, Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan using a cattle prod and other methods of torture on a grain dealer whom he felt had bested him in a 
deal. And he videotaped it?? In Alexandria, they believe they have found the tomb of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, but only further excavation will yield positive results. Let us all devoutly hope the place is inhabited by
countless asps and thus a danger for prying eyes. Mombasa is the destination of choice for the discerning pirate, where anything can be had with recently acquired hijacking profits. North Korea has called the tougher United Nation sanctions "a declaration of war" and now vows to produce weapons-grade plutonium. China has 
semi-permanently blocked YouTube and is now demanding that all computers be equipped with blocking technology. Apparently they are not content to block only their citizens, they wish to block everyone. Oh yes, they have once again demanded that the USA deny entry to 
the Dalai Lama, the "known enemy of the Chinese people." At the same time, the French made him an honorary citizen of France, which rather surprised me, given France's economic ties to China and hopes for a bigger slice of the Chinese market. Suzlon Corp. has tried to copyright its advertising 
logo, the upright three-dot pyramid punctuation mark signifying "therefore" and is vexed that they cannot copyright a punctuation mark. Imagine how rich one would be if one held the copyright on the period. Strunk and White are turning in their graves. In ever-astonishing Zimbabwe, the rape of virgins is experiencing an exponential rise, as it is well known that raping a virgin will cure AIDS (yes, Virginia, they really do believe that). My big questions of the week are, in no particular order: why does a credited cinema technician in England named Julius Buttock not want to change his name?; why is there Formula 1 racing in Shanghai?; is Newt Gingrich really going to be the "new face" of the GOP in 2012?; is everyone over Sarah Boyle yet?; can anyone rationally explain the game of cricket? I do not know whether it is my advancing age or living in Europe here in the DHOSF, but I have become increasingly political. European coverage of world politics is far wider and more comprehensive than anything available in the "tailored-just-for-you" news media of the USA.In the USA, I remark that students have record credit card debt as they struggle with the economy. Chesapeake
Bay is being crammed full of bivalves to siphon off the 
scum and pollution and no doubt they will attempt to sell them after death as delicious comestibles. The 2009 $3.5 trillion dollar budget works out to spending $1000 per second for 114.16 years. The $10 trillion dollar national debt will grow by $1 trillion this year and Japan is running a tight 1st place to China's close 2nd as the largest holders of American debt. GM goes belly up, about which I have no sentiment whatsoever other than a faint, fond memory of a metallic gold Pontiac Firebird 
TransAm I owned a very long time ago. Is Mia Farrow still on her hunger strike for Darfour? I do hope so, she is so grotesquely overweight as it is, she needs to lose the 60 lbs she has left. Go Mia! nobody cares - about you, 
that is. It is reminiscent of the canons of European beauty - painfully thin women and Italian porn star young men, soliciting your further consumption, "If you buy this 
product, you can sleep with us, too." Besides, the human brain is hardwired to recognize facial symmetry as "beauty", the rest is passing fashion and changing cultural preferences. Larry King continues to be a shameless liar and self-promotion whiz, understandable when you realize he has talked eight women into marriage and did not meet his oldest son until he (the son) was over thirty years old. The reason?, "It was my first wife's fault." Where is a good Permian Extinction when you need one? Well, let us all pray that those who gobble so greedily at the banquet of the profane and irremediable receive the full, healthy share of "Viking kindness" that they so deserve. Until the next,Leducdor
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