text: A blinding light shot across a small portion of the milky way, but we would never have known, not in this lifetime, or the thousands after that. What we did not see was the death and supernova of one Kepler-47A, and the forceful deconstruction repositioning of its planets and its partner star Kepler-47B. It wouldn’t be visible for us for another 3,442 lightyears, and a few hundred lightyears later, our solar system would be visited by all the shrapnel of the only non-gas planet Kepler-47b. Like the pellets from a shotgun, most of the shreds of Kepler-47b would fly way off into the galaxy and beyond, never to be seen again, or never be seen at all; however, some would find their way in the rings around a planet, or incinerated in an atom-crushing star, or smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. This is usually not an issue, asteroids fall onto the earth and into the oceans daily. Unfortunately, this asteroid was the same size as the ocean. When the people of the future had heard about this, many wanted to save the planet that had nurtured them and their race, but they knew nothing could be done. Most abandoned the planet, moving to the classic colonies Mars, or the floating cities on Titan, some even testing their luck on Europa or a Jupiter gas rig. Of course, there are always the ignorant who will go down with their skepticism, or those who feel like this is where they want their story to end, where they came from. In the final moments, when the gravity of what remained of Kepler-47b started to tug away at earth’s orbit, and nearly one hundred billion watched in silence from all over our solar system, one final transmission came from the pale blue dot: \[8/27/12012-18:37\] - Unknown\_Signal - “This is Paul Topson, anyone still checking for messages from us?” \[8/27/12012-18:37\] - ODS\_URSA - “This is the O.D.S. Ursa, in Martian orbit. Is this a rescue call?” At this time, Kepler-47b-1 had passed the Asteroid belt. \[8/27/12012-18:38\] - Unknown\_Signal - “No, no. everyone here wants to be here, for different reasons. But I didn’t want this to be so.... Sad.... y’know? I’m old as is, loved the earth rather than the stars. Lived my life to the fullest. I’m content.“ At this time, Kepler-47b-1 had passed Mars’s orbit. \[8/27/12012-18:41\] - Unknown\_Signal - “But still, there is an obvious gloom here. So I thought ‘What the hell, why do my and so may other last moments have to be sad ones?’” \[8/27/12012-18:42\] - ODS\_URSA - “I’m afraid I don’t understand. What are you talking about?” At this time, Kepler-47b-1 Is halfway between Mars and Earth. \[8/27/12012-18:44\] - Unknown\_Signal - “For a while now, we couldn’t believe the world was gonna end. We couldn’t get it. We couldn’t fathom it. All of it gone? That’s crazy talk. We just didn’t get why the temperature was changing so drastically, or why the big space rock was getting bigger and bigger-” Kepler-47b-1 Is seconds from impact. The Solar system sits still. \-But then it hit us!” \[Lost signal\] Kepler-47b-1 and Earth are both annihilated in one blinding fireball. It’s a Tragedy. August 27th, 6:44 is recognized as the universal moment of silence for the homeworld. However, though the loss and sadness, there is one thing all people are able to laugh at, together, unified by the ultimate loss: The last transmission from our pale blue dot was a perfect dad joke. ‘Then it hit us’ Gets me every time.