Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Could someone describe what it's like to live on earth during a (close) supernova ? Why can this event trigger an extinction ?




But it wouldn't help answering the question, because a supernova doesn't just eject the neutrinos, it's the intentionally "illogical" question for what-if that is answered there.

For the answer to the question "what it's like to live on earth during a (close) supernova" the starting point is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_supernova

If it's "roughly less than 10 to 300 parsecs (30 to 1000 light-years) away" it will "have noticeable effects on its biosphere."

"It is estimated that a Type II supernova closer than eight parsecs (26 light-years) would destroy more than half of the Earth's ozone layer."

"Type Ia supernovae are thought to be potentially the most dangerous if they occur close enough to the Earth. Because Type Ia supernovae arise from dim, common white dwarf stars, it is likely that a supernova that could affect the Earth will occur unpredictably and take place in a star system that is not well studied."


And, for an idea of how many such stars we see, the list of visible stars not farther than 50 light years:

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/50lys.html

"This is a map of every star within 50 light years visible with the naked eye from Earth. There are 133 stars marked on this map." "There are roughly 1400 star systems within this volume of space containing 2000 stars, so this map only shows the brightest 10% of all the star systems, but most of the fainter stars are red dwarfs."


Is there a comprehensive list of ALL stars within 50/100/200/etc light years?


http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star-catalog/cns3.html

"Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars, 3rd Edition, contains all known stars as of 1991 that are within 25 parsecs of the Sun."

(25 pc == 81 ly) Only 213 KB gzipped, I count less than 4000 lines total.

Since then there were new satellites which collected much more total stars, and the coming will collect even more, but I don't know how the near stars are affected (probably less).




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: