Neil Gaiman, creator of "The Sandman" series, once recounted in one of his works a very strange thing which happened to him at 16. Walking through a forest late one night, he noticed among the sea of stars a single star, which stood out because it seemed to be flickering oddly. He stopped and stared, and as he watched, the star grew brighter and brighter, until everything around him was burning white - in his words he could see "every blade of grass", illuminated. The star then dimmed, withdrawing its light, until it was again just another pinprick in the sky. Mr Gaiman waited after for a full 15 minutes, but nothing else happened.
So does anyone know if there's actually some scientific reason behind this occurence, or is it one of those things which just can't be explained away?
2006-08-20 05:10:03 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
could have been a star breifly going supernova, but everyone would have seen it. What's more likely is that he saw a small comet or meteor enter our atmosphere and burn up completely.
2006-08-20 06:25:20 · answer #1 · answered by hyperhealer3 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yep. Neil has an excellent imagination plus his eyes had dialated to a larger than usual amount. This might have been due to something that Neil took or ate earlier in the evening.
I've read his Sandman series, which tends to indicates that Neil experiments in his attempts to see the world in new and different ways.
2006-08-20 12:21:59 · answer #2 · answered by Alan Turing 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could have been a Fireball, a very bright meteor. If it was coming toward him, it would get brightetr and brighter and then fade away.
From IMO:
Fireball: A bright meteor with an apparent visual magnitude of -4 mag. or brighter.
These occur only about once in 12,000 meteors. They can be very bright, bright enough to be seen during the daylight.
;-D I saw a bright blue one and it was beautiful!
2006-08-20 12:35:35 · answer #3 · answered by China Jon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It may have really happened, It may be a lie, or he was High on angel dust,
2006-08-20 13:26:18 · answer #4 · answered by class4 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
His ganja was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past it's expiration date.
2006-08-20 22:22:50 · answer #5 · answered by SPLATT 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What makes you think there is any validity to this story ?
2006-08-20 12:26:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
inexpainable - why only him...
why not hoards of others...
why not here in the middle of los angeles.
BOOYAH
2006-08-20 12:58:13 · answer #7 · answered by sparkloom 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
that's awesome! I don't think that can be explained though.
2006-08-20 12:16:49 · answer #8 · answered by amylr620 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
he was probably experiencing a supernova.
2006-08-20 12:25:45 · answer #9 · answered by That one guy 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋