What Supernova Distance Would Trigger Mass Extinction?
www.youtube.com
Thank you to Brilliant for Supporting PBS. To learn more go to https://brilliant.org/SpaceTime/PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your ...

The excellent PBS Spacetime - a physics and cosmology education channel - has released a new video detailing the effects and likelihood of supernovae in our stellar neighborhood.

  • OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    2 years ago

    We have a lower bound of 1 AU then!

    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. -Wikipedia

    So we probably wouldn’t want that to happen either, but I don’t know if that would cause specifically an extinction event.

    Also the star most likely to cause a near-earth event is IK Pegasi which is about 150 light years away.