> Also if there was any form of life orbiting a star in the path of this flair...
Based upon a couple other articles I read [1] [2], it sounds unlikely there were other galaxies or smaller structures in the path of this flare. I only see references to a very directional cone at the poles of the Milky Way, and the cone only intersects a trail of gases left behind by the Magellanic Stream.
Were there somehow orphaned planets, solar systems or smaller galaxies in the path of those cones not mentioned in the articles however, then the gamma rays, X-rays and highly ionizing gases in those cones of energy would certainly strip away most if not all of the atmosphere of any Earth-like planet, and kill all forms of life as we know it unless it was in some kind of weird, tidally-locked configuration that kept one side always facing the originating, ejecting side of the cone.
These flares would make a great plot device setup for a story in the Xeelee Sequence or /r/HFY. We find out the flares are deployed as weapons, used as a kind of galactic-scale sawed-off shotgun against another galaxy. Or the flares are galactic-grade energy reactor experiments gone horribly awry, and are the cause of one Great Filter at the Kardashev Type-III scale.
Is there a name for some kind of inverted Kardashev scale, where higher civilizations decide to slow down and go miniature, conserving as much energy and information as possible?
Possibly as a) some kind of bet to hide from other civilizations and b) to delay the heat death as long as possible.
My go-to entry point for exploring those kinds of questions was Isaac Arthur. He goes into the Kardashev scale [1], dying Earth [2], dying stars [3], farming black holes [4], and going past iron stars [5]. A Boltzmann Brain's description bears remarkable similarity to the Judeo-Christian concept of God before time begins, and has been fertile ground for ruminations [6], though none with any verifiable claims backing them in our current knowledge of physics [7].
Now if we could only restructure our implementation of capitalism to be pinned to advancements towards resolving physics questions to survive those kinds of timescales and challenges instead of locked down to a single planet's worth of baryonic matter and cognitive capacity...
There very likely were thousands of stars in the paths of the jets as they passed through the galactic bulge at the center of the galaxy. Our galaxy gets thicker in the galactic center and the bulge is 3000+ light years thick and contains an estimated 10 million stars.
Based upon a couple other articles I read [1] [2], it sounds unlikely there were other galaxies or smaller structures in the path of this flare. I only see references to a very directional cone at the poles of the Milky Way, and the cone only intersects a trail of gases left behind by the Magellanic Stream.
Were there somehow orphaned planets, solar systems or smaller galaxies in the path of those cones not mentioned in the articles however, then the gamma rays, X-rays and highly ionizing gases in those cones of energy would certainly strip away most if not all of the atmosphere of any Earth-like planet, and kill all forms of life as we know it unless it was in some kind of weird, tidally-locked configuration that kept one side always facing the originating, ejecting side of the cone.
These flares would make a great plot device setup for a story in the Xeelee Sequence or /r/HFY. We find out the flares are deployed as weapons, used as a kind of galactic-scale sawed-off shotgun against another galaxy. Or the flares are galactic-grade energy reactor experiments gone horribly awry, and are the cause of one Great Filter at the Kardashev Type-III scale.
[1] https://www.sciencealert.com/something-in-the-centre-of-our-...
[2] https://earthsky.org/space/explosion-milky-way-center-seyfer...