On the evening of April 17, 1006 AD, a little more than 1,000 years ago, human beings from around the world looked up into the night sky and saw a brilliant light, the likes of which they had never before seen in their entire lives.

Most people thought it was a new star-- the brightest, by far, that anyone had ever observed. Some thought it was an omen or a sign from the gods.

We know now that neither was the case. The phenomenon that everyone saw that evening was actually a supernova originating more than 7,000 light years away from Earth. And scientists now refer to it as “SN 1006”, named after the year of its observation.

SN 1006 is especially famous because it is likely the brightest ever recorded in human history.

It was so bright, in fact, that its light could even be seen in the daytime. It was also seen by people as far away as China, Iran, Egypt, and Europe.

A group of monks in Switzerland reported being able to see SN 1006 for three months after its initial appearance, while astronomers in China’s Song Dynasty continued to observe the supernova until at least December of that year.

A supernova, as you’re probably aware, is an exploding star. It’s essentially the final phase of a star’s life cycle.

When stars are born, they’re nothing but gas and dust. In time, they grow into enormous stellar forces that cast their light and power across the solar system and give life to satellite planets. Everything in their domain literally revolves around the star.

But even stars eventually peak… and decline. They deplete their primary resources, and their core begins to shrink. Eventually, with its resources completely exhausted, a star begins to collapse… at which point it can explode in a giant supernova that can cause havoc and destruction across the galaxy.

This is in many ways a great analogy for empire. Like stars, empires are born from often humble beginnings. A handful of people come together in difficult circumstances, and the odds of success are very low.

But with luck, that small group of people turns into a fledgling civilization that continues to grow… and eventually rises into a vast and powerful empire that shines its light across the region, or possibly the world.

Like a star, everything else revolves around the empire; even tiny, distant nations are in its orbit and depend heavily on the empire for trade and economic activity.

But eventually the empire exhausts itself. It eats away at itself, depleting its most precious resources until there’s nothing left.

Just like a star that declines and collapses after consuming all the hydrogen in its core, an empire consumes the very things that made it successful and powerful to begin with. And when an empire declines and collapses, just like a star, the effects of that collapse cascade across the region for years to come.