Sunrise was spectacular: a melange of oranges, yellows and reds surrounded by a blazing white halo. It crept up over the eastern horizon like a hunter with fire in his eyes, looking for his victim. Like the hunter, the sun had power over life and death. Like the hunter, the sun was relentless, showing no mercy. If its prey wandered too close, the unfortunate victim felt the searing heat of its blaze. Too far away, the victim starved in the dark infertile void. The hunted always walked a fine line between life and death. Planet Earth, too, tread a narrow course. It grazed in an orbit that was sandwiched between the extremes. But now Terra Firma's tranquility had been invaded from outside the realm of the sun's influence. Times were about to change on planet Earth.