
Can a Supernova Cause Mass Extinction? - toufiqbarhamov
https://daily.jstor.org/can-a-supernova-cause-mass-extinction/
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jrue
All the ways extinction is possible helps to answer Fermi’s paradox.
Asteroids, nuclear war, disease, supernova, etc. I was just reading that NASA
is getting closer to its [asteroid defense
system]([https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart](https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart)).
It’s like civilizations are in a race to get technologically advanced enough
to protect against all the ways they can be extinguished. I imagine we would
one day catalog all of the potential supernovas near us to a high degree of
certainty. Hopefully, if we found an imminent one, we would be advanced enough
to take mitigating steps or just leave the planet.

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mr_toad
Only if the mass extinctions happen fast/regularly enough.

We don’t really know how long it takes for intelligence to evolve, or how long
a interstellar civilisation to develop, since we only have one example of the
former and zero of the latter.

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te_platt
It's nice to read an article like this that doesn't try to invent some
controversy. It looks like a supernova could cause a disruption large enough
to cause an extinction. No, there's not enough evidence to say it actually.
Yes, it is an interesting idea and if anyone has anything to add go for it.

A good story has some fight in it. Not every theory does and that's ok.

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cletus
Isn't this one of those things that's obviously true?

For one thing, supernovae can release gamma ray bursts, which could easily
sterilize a region of space. For another, the ejection of material itself
could directly affect nearby systems.

Personally I think the more interesting aspects is how, in a certain way,
supernovae are _needed_ for complex life as this largely seems to be the
source for elements heavier than iron.

Isn't it kind of amazing that there's a bunch of material on earth that only
exists because of supernovae and even the merger of neutron stars?

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sbuttgereit
I think the title of the article is rather poor.

It should have been called something like, "Could Past Supernovae Have Caused
Historic Mass Extinctions?", Which is really what the article is concerned
with.

Granted, not nearly so catchy and not nearly so evocative of pending
events....

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golemotron
Interesting fact: We can tell the headline is inaccurate without looking at
the article because it violates Betteridge’s Law of Headlines.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headli...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

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grawprog
To be honest, my first thought before reading the article was:
Well...yeah...I'd assume if your sun went supernova you'd probably go extinct.

The article was a nice read though. I've read a few thing claiming similar
theories, but it was usually amongst a bunch of fairly unscientific
ummm...stuff...to put it nicely....

It was nice to see the idea explained in a logical scientific way that made
sense.

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ChuckMcM
No one disputes that one, if the Sun turned into a super nova it would
definitely take out the Earth :-). And we know that a star going nova in the
Large Magellanic Cluster (nearest galaxy to the Milkyway) would not cause
one[1], so we've got a set of boundary conditions to start with. Next step is
to iterate between those extremes to come up with a more accurate answer.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A)

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asah
q: could this affect the Drake equation, i.e. if supernovae happen every X
years could this partly account for the absence of life?

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macintux
One of those rare scientific questions where I hope we never have a definitive
answer.

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HoochieKoo
Mutations? Perhaps this is the way humans came about?

