one o'clock
All his problems were forgotten as Phobar watched the eighth star increase hourly . Closer than any other , closer even than Alpha Centauri , the new sun appeared , scarcely three light-years away across the void surrounding the solar system . And all the while he watched , he witnessed a thing no man had ever before seen -- the birth of a world ! * * * * * By one o'clock , the new star was of fifth magnitude ; by two it was of the first . As the faint flush of dawn began to come toward the close of that frosty , moonless November night , the new star was a great white-hot object more brilliant than any other star in the heavens . Phobar knew that when its light finally reached Earth so that ordinary eyes could see , it would be the most beautiful object in the night sky . What was the reason for these unparalleled births of worlds and the terrifying mathematical precision that characterized them ?