A Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) is an incredibly powerful particle jet that originates in unimaginably violent astrophysical phenomena: supernovae or neutron-star collisions. These bursts, should they happen to be aimed at earth, could cause mass extinction. This may have already happened long before humans were around. Although this may sound grim, we are quite lucky that the Universe is such that GRBs are not all that frequent. In fact, a small adjustment in a fundamental parameter known as the Cosmological Constant would have meant many more GRB-emitting supernovae, and a much lower chance of us avoiding annihilation.
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