'... And Then We Explode'

I like learning about the universe via my television screen, but I always seem to find myself turning the channel because of the invariable introduction of "How This Means The Ultimate Destruction Of Earth."

You know, the grave movie-trailer voice invoking the cliche of all space docushockeries: "It's not if it happens ... but when."

Asteroids on a collision course. The sun exploding. Random mega gamma bursts that are bound to cross our path and mutate us within minutes.

And the strangely glib, Revenge of the Nerds astronomers chuckling about armageddon with analysis like "A supernova's cool, but you would want to wear your sunglasses ... that is, right before you would be incinerated."

However, last night I was watching an episode of "The Universe" on The History Channel regarding the search for planets in alien solar systems. It showed all these magnificent renderings of possible planets ravaged by gaseous solar storms in stilted orbits.

It showed all these possibilities, trillions of miles away, with the periodic reference to how the planets might or might not resemble Earth.

But for every mention of Earth, it focused on how our perception of what a world is had kept scientists from affirmatively discovering planets for years.

I awaited the cataclysmic connection to how our world is doomed.

And it never came.

The clever side of me says that I in some way wanted to know that whatever was going on out there would affect my world, even if it meant certain annihilation.

But leaving behind cleverness to make light of things I don't understand, I think I'm comforted knowing that there's things going on out there that have nothing to do with us -- which maybe means we'll actually understand better.