![]() ![]() With no ozone, skin-cancer cases would skyrocket. If the Sun went supernova it would have a much more dramatic effect. would be strong enough to give you a nasty sunburn in just five minutes. If we lose 2/3 of our ozone, the UV radiation on mid-latitude cities like Washington, D.C. If our ozone was impacted enough to cause even a 10 percent increase in ground-level ultraviolet (UV) radiation, it could kill much of the Ocean’s phytoplankton, effectively bringing an end to all marine life. It did (for some strange reason), it would still be very bad. Massive as the stars that actually do go supernova, so assuming that Of course, just as a reminder, the Sun is not nearly as It alsoĬould ionize nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, leading to theįormation of large amounts of smog-like nitrous oxide in theĪtmosphere. ![]() The ozone layer that protects us from solar ultraviolet rays. X-rays and more energetic gamma-rays from the supernova could destroy Would lead to major effects on the Earth, possibly mass extinctions. Were a supernova to go off within about 30 light-years of us, that Mark Reid, a senior astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has said: Big frown face for us, because 8.3 light-minutes is a lot closer than 50 light-years.ĭr. ![]() And as a reminder, the sun is about 8.3 light-minutes from Earth. Scientists theorize that the Earth’s ozone layer would be damaged if a star less than 50 light-years away went supernova. Which means radiation, lots and lots of radiation. An explosion of this magnitude releases incredible amounts of energy-as much as the sun creates over the course of its entire life. These explosions are roughly the equivalent of a few octillion nuclear warheads, and a few octillion nuclear warheads going off in your neighborhood is extremely detrimental to any life in the area. In essence, a supernova is a violent stellar explosion. In fact, it would be “totally defying the laws of physics” weird.īut let’s pretend for a moment that the Sun could go supernova… So if it went supernova it would be really weird. Although there is some debate about the exact threshold, the Sun is not nearly massive enough, not even close. In order for a star to go supernova, it has to have a mass greater than at least 8 solar masses. First, if the Sun went supernova scientists would be terribly, terribly confused. ![]()
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