I picked up on this quite some time ago but was again reminded of it by this article. It's one of those cases where an SF writer got it right before the astrophysicists proved it. I'm guessing that some of you have read Larry Niven's book? Remember why the Pierson's Puppeteers were moving their entire solar system out of the galaxy?
I was sure I first read about it as a serious scientific theory about six years ago, and this National Geographic article seems to confirm that, whereas I'm fairly sure (correct me if I'm wrong) Niven was writing about this sort of stuff back in the early 70s. Quite likely he took the idea from some speculative articles knocking round at the time, but still...
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Cool stuff, tho I don't remember such a scenario in Niven's Ringworld. Mind you its been a while since I read-must reacquaint myself with the book! Talking of books I found a copy of Gridlinked in the library today, and have read the Prologue. No doubt I will add a review on my blog as well as Goodreads when done...
My recollection is that, as part of the Known Space milieu in which Ringworld is set, Niven posited that a shock front sweeping out from the galactic center and advancing inexorably towards the worlds of Known Space is generated by a chain reaction cascade of supernovae explosions at the Galactic Core.
Perhaps you have in mind another of Niven's novels: A World Out of Time. I seem to recall that a black hole situated at the galactic center played a role
in that novel but I admit my memory is a little hazy.
Fuck me but I'm making some cock-ups here. Yes, the galactic core was exploding. I must go read Neutron Star again to see how that's phrased - if there is a black hole involved!
Pretty sure it was an event horizon about 10000 years away and I thought they were driving five planets away. Could be mistaken. Anyway, welcome back to Blighty!
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