Letters: Cycle of Birth and Death (1 Letter)

To the Editor:

Re "Amid Cosmic Fatigue, Scarcely a Star Is Born" (Out There, Nov. 20): Though one may bemoan the rapidly declining birthrate of stars, the inescapable fact is that everything ends. People live for about 80 years, but any one of us could die tomorrow. As for our species, a cosmic impact causing mass extinctions like that of the dinosaurs occurs every 100 million years or so, although we may extinguish ourselves long before that through war or by destroying our environment.

Our planet will be incinerated in about 5 billion years when our Sun, in its own death throes, becomes a red giant. And our Milky Way galaxy will collide and merge with Andromeda in 3 to 4 billion years. Even the universe itself will end in either fire or ice, depending on whether its expansion continues forever, causing a "big rip," or is reversed, resulting in a "big crunch."

Happy holidays!

Stephen A. Silver

San Francisco

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