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Good evening,
I make it short - or at least I try to.

The answer is quite simple and can be explained with some space physics.
Neutron stars are degenerated stars which collapsed under the gravitation of their leftovers, the remnant of a massive or super massive dying star.

Lets start with the heavy stars and how these fuse hydrogen into helium (our sun does the same). For massive and super massive stars this can vary between 7 and 11 million years. In cosmological terms this is very short.
This is how EE started 10 years ago - normal and healthy for a star, allowed life to form, a community to bring joy.

When the hydrogen is depleted the star pulls together due to its own gravity it heats up and "ignites" the helium fusion which generates an outward presure and the star blows up like a baloon. Helium fuses into carbon - and this phase takes aprox. 500k to 2 million years. A last, glorious and shining life - rendering nearby planets sterile should these ever survive the formation of this "planetary nebula".
EE was here 2-3 years ago.

After the rather short helium fusion the cycle starts all over again. The core pulls together, core gets hotter and hotter until the density and heat allows the carbon to fuse into neon. Nothing fancy happens, takes 500-2000 years. A blink of an eye.
Some EE drama might be as short and violent as this shortliving carbon fusion...

Neon fuses into oxygen in a year, oxygen into silicon in a few weeks and silicon into iron in a day. Thats it. Iron.
Its dead - iron has no energy to give and the remaining star core the size of Earth and made of iron collapses under its own gravitational weight and forms at least a neutron star - all in a fraction of a second while the outer shell of the star cannot react due to ... lag.
The atoms are ripped apart and everything is so densely packed together that they generate an outward pressure that prevents the core from collapsing into a black hole. If the mass would be big enough it would become one though.
Now the outer shell realizes what was going on and falls down to the surface of the neutron star the size of a city (or 12-20km) with the mass of 2-3 suns and bounces back. Voila, super nova.

A super nova, one of the most violent events in the known universe are also suspected to create atoms beyond iron - as we learned earlier iron cannot fuse into heavier elements.
Btw. a super nova is brighter than the entire universe for the moment it occurs. In the non visible spectrum of course, x-ray for example.
However, it is getting even worse.

This newly created neutron star has to undergo another, most violent event to create the remaining heavy elements like gold, platinum and everything your computer is made of. It merges with another neutron star.
In this event the two neutron stars collide and spew out an incredible amount of their whatever-matter they are made of and create those precious elements. Not by fusion, but by neutron capture which is a bit difficult to explain

So, a star not only has to die once, but twice to create life!
Why do I say this?

Apparently the Xeno burning phase ended long ago resulting in the game dying for good. But now, toward its actual end, the game dies another time and in doing so it is shining bright, prospering and teeming with life.
Its been a long time since I saw a single map with 20 people, let along 300 people online - and 4 worlds crowded to the max.

All the best,
Love, Helvi 😘