Tim Meacham

Cosmic vapour trails

The research program into cosmic dust stretched for decades. Similarly over the years, the telescopes had extended their reach (and our eyes) into space and time with progressively advanced optical technologies. 

My dog had died on the morning of the day we finally realised what we were looking at. Distant vapour trails hung in the still air as I rode quietly to the observatory. At an estimated distance of over 13 billion light years, we were witnessing the infinitesimally slow dispersion of a fillagree of regular cuts in the cosmic dust cloud – the unmistakable trails of powered craft