You by now must know that GOAT is the Greatest Of All Time.  But  BOAT:  The Brightest of All Time ? Last October telescopes spotted a gamma ray burst, which is caused by the collapse of a black hole.  These also occur when two black holes or neutron stars collide.  This phenomenon is focused along a narrow beam.  If you happen to be in the path, you could be in trouble. One of Humanity's most serious possible extinction evenf could well be a gamma ray burst. However, Planet Earth is so far away from such things that astronomers don't much worry about that, especially as the odds of this beam heading exactly our way are very low. Yet, astronomers detect about a burst a day, and these are only the ones heading in our general direction, which is a small percentage of all GRBs in the Universe. The calculation is that an extinction GRB happens once every five million years, but not on here. Possibly, a GRB with this potential could have occurred about 450 milli...