Pinwheel Galaxy

NGC 5457, M101, or the Pinwheel Galaxy is about 21 million light years from Willingboro. It is about 167,000 light years across and contains about one trillion stars.

It became famous because 21 million years ago or 2023ixf (as we labeled it) went supernova and, in doing so, probably destroyed all life within a radius of 50 light years.

But the earth was changing and life on it was evolving and this period on earth became to be known as the Miocene epoch.

During the Early Miocene, Afro-Arabia collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, and allowing animals to move between Eurasia and Africa, including the migration of elephants into Eurasia.

As an aside here, during the late Miocene, the connections between the Atlantic and Mediterranean closed, causing the Mediterranean Sea to nearly evaporate. As usual, there was no need for concern because later, at the Miocene–Pliocene boundary, the Strait of Gibraltar opened and the Mediterranean refilled in an event called the Zanclean flood. But with all that has happened since, that is just water under the bridge, as they say.

As far as life was concerned, apes first evolved and diversified during the early Miocene and became widespread. By the end of this epoch the ancestors of humans split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees and would follow their own evolutionary path. Grasslands expanded and forests shrunk. In the oceans, kelp forests made their first appearance.

To summarize, life on earth progressed while life near 2023ixf was extinguished. But its photons began their long journey and finally arrived here on May 19, 2023.

And I am reminded of the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.:
“So it goes.”