Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

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Transcript of news broadcast, WLVG Channel 2 Las Vegas

Sally Whitehead: Earlier today, scientists across North America and Europe began buzzing about an exciting new discovery. Apparently, a high level of gamma-ray emissions is being detected from a star 300 light years from Earth. Now if you think this sounds like something right out of a science fiction movie, you’re not alone. Our senior science and medical correspondent, Ashley Acuff, is reporting from the Nevada SETI Center with more. Ashley?

Ashley Acuff: That’s right, Sally. While it’s too soon to jump to any formal conclusions, astronomers around the world are excited about what they’re seeing. I spoke to Dr. Helson of the National Science Institute, and he told me that, normally, gamma rays exist throughout the universe, and the detection of them is neither unusual nor unexpected. However, the frequency of these newly detected rays and their origin is what’s causing so much excitement in the scientific community.

Sally Whitehead: And when you say “origin,” what do you mean?

Ashley Acuff: Astronomers are pointing terrestrial telescopes and gamma-ray detectors at a set of coordinates in a distant galaxy. Helson told me that gamma-ray observation has been around since the 1960s—the technology is not new. But computers have come a long way since then, and scientists are now able to feed the data into a computer system and analyze the results in a way that just wasn’t possible even ten years ago. Even still, the detection of this spike is quite rare. While computers capture billions of bits of data from the cosmos, scientists are lucky if they can interpret even a fraction of it, and detecting a variance within that subset is even rarer. You might say this discovery is like finding a needle in a haystack the size of a galaxy.

Sally Whitehead: I’m sure that’s fascinating work, but our viewers are probably wondering the same thing that I am. What could be causing these gamma-ray emissions?

Ashley Acuff: Again, Sally, I’m not an astronomer or a scientist. But I’ve learned that gamma rays are created by such things as cosmic ray interactions with interstellar gas, collisions between electrons and magnetic fields, and the most common and abundant source—supernova explosions.

Sally Whitehead: Which is?

Ashley Acuff: A supernova is when a star explodes, spewing debris across the galaxy.

Sally Whitehead: Wouldn’t astronomers be able to see evidence of a supernova?

Ashley Acuff: Definitely. But you have to remember that they believe the source of these newly-detected gamma rays is 300 light years away, which means that if the supernova explosion happened today, we wouldn’t “see” evidence of it for 300 years. Because of that, there isn’t really a consensus in the scientific community as to what’s causing the emissions. Therefore, it’s quite possible that an electron and magnetic field anomaly is behind the spike in the readings. So for now, NASA and other global space agencies are continuing to gather data and analyze it. As they draw more solid conclusions, they’ll continue to share them with the general public.

Sally Whitehead: So, Ashley, I guess we don’t have to worry about the arrival of ET. We’re not being invaded from outer space.

Ashley Acuff: Ha! No, no. I don’t think you should stockpile your weapons and food just yet.