Quotes / The Stars Are Going Out

Literature

The Degenerate Era will actually last much longer than this, in fact, so collisions between stars will happen frequently once you grasp that time scale. When two brown dwarfs merge [...] a relatively normal star could result. In fact, if the collision is a little bit off-center, then matter from the two objects could be stripped off [...] It's entirely possible that planets could form from this material; is it too hard to imagine life forming under such circumstances? Their view of the Universe would be far, far different from ours. Their skies would be entirely dark except for the one sun burning during the day. [...] What myths and legends would arise on such a planet?

— Death from the Skies

I was eight years old when the stars went out.
November 15th, 2034, 8:11:05 to 8:27:42 GMT.
I didn't witness the circle of darkness growing from the antisolar point like the mouth of a coal-black cosmic worm, gaping to swallow the world. On TV, yes, a hundred times, from a dozen locations - but on TV, it look like nothing of the cheapest of special effects.

— Quarantine

Poetry

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

— W. H. Auden, Stop All the Clocks

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space

— Lord Byron, "Darkness"

Music

The lights in the sky are waving goodbye
And I am staying right beside you

— Nine Inch Nails, "Lights in the Sky"

Obscure flickers in the distance
These lights blinked out of existence
Dying systems pulled through a void
Experimental universe designed to destroy itself

— Vektor, "Accelerating Universe"

Radio

Alexei Korolev: The sky - it's so black! Where are all the stars?
Natalia Pushkin: Dead. All save one. There - do you see it?
Alexei Korolev: So faint! Like a dying candle...
Natalia Pushkin: The last sun, kept alive beyond its demise by force. But now even that is fading away. The other stars are gone, bleeding away their light, collapsed to barren Brown Dwarfs. This is entropy, child: the death of the universe.

— Big Finish Doctor Who: "Singularity"

Video Games

Donald,
Sorry to rush off without sayin' goodbye, but there's big trouble brewin'. Not sure why, but the stars have been blinkin' out, one by one. And that means disaster can't be far behind. I hate to leave you all but I've gotta go check into it.

— Mickey Mouse's letter, Kingdom Hearts

Chert: Say, have you noticed anything unusual about the stars lately? Something seems... how to put this... off. I've seen, what, ten supernovae already? Twelve? They're in the double digits now, and that's, you know, not normal. Not normal at all...
The Hatchling: Why are so many stars going supernova?
Chert: I have no idea! Massive stars go supernova when they reach the end of their life spans, so it's possible that the stars are older than we realized. Or maybe our models are wrong and they don’t live as long as we expected. Honestly, I'm not fond of either option! If our charts are wrong, what else is wrong? And our sun... No, I shouldn't jump to conclusions. I-I'm probably overlooking something. That's it, I just need to collect more data.

— Outer Wilds, midway through the "Groundhog Day" Loop

Chert: The stars! They're all dying! There've been too many supernovae for it to be anything else! We're next, do you understand?! Our sun! By Hearth's name, we're next!
The Hatchling: What do you mean, "We're next?"
Chert: It's the stars, you see. All the other stars are dying out. Oh, why did we have to be born at the end of the universe? And our sun, it... The star charts! Why? Why did I want to update them so badly? I didn't have to know, but no, oh no, I had to update the star charts! I had to go looking for things I shouldn't have! And now our sun is about to... about to... oh... I don't feel well. I'd like to be alone, please.

— Outer Wilds, late in the "Groundhog Day" Loop

Chert: Oh, hello... Come, sit with me, my fellow traveler. Let's sit together and watch the stars die.
The Hatchling: Sure, why not.
Chert: We only get so much time, don't we? Ah, there was still more I wanted to do... How unlucky to have been born at the end of the universe.

— Outer Wilds, just before the end of the "Groundhog Day" Loop

The strangers will blink up at the sky, a welcome sight after the prison's confines. They will not notice how many fewer stars are in the sky than there were a hundred years ago.

— Sunless Skies

Web Original

the stars are blowing out like candles, danny jane
make a wish make a wish make a wish make a wish make a

— Hour of Arrival

Real Life

With no fuel left to burn, a white dwarf's faint glow comes from the last residual heat of its extinguished furnace. The Sun is now dead, its remains slowly cooling in the freezing temperatures of deep space. Looking at it from where the Earth is now, it will only generate the same amount of light as a full moon on a clear night. The fate of the Sun is the same as for all stars. One day, they must all eventually die, and the cosmos will be plunged into eternal night.

— Professor Brian Cox, physicist, Wonders of the Universe

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