A thousand years ago, a star appeared where there had been nothing.

It burned for twenty-three days in full daylight. Astronomers in China recorded it night after night, and called it the “guest star”. Then, over the next two years, it dimmed — and went out.

What they were watching was a star dying: collapsing under its own weight, then tearing itself open. Its light had already crossed six thousand years of empty space to reach them. The star itself was long gone before anyone ever looked up.

They only ever saw it leave.

A thousand years later, we made it stay.