I'd like to know

[James Wright]

I'd like to know, can a star that's situated about 5 LYs away from the earth cause damage or even destroy the earth when said star goes super nova?
I figure when our sun goes, just step outside and get an extra crispy suntan!

James

 

[sojourner]

The radiation from a star going supernova Could eradicate most life on earth from as far away as 7500LY depending on the type of star and it's orientation to us.

Google found this along with several hundred other relevant hits:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2311-supernova-poised-to-go-off-near-earth.html

 

[Trekker4747]

The radiation from a star going supernova Could eradicate most life on earth from as far away as 7500LY depending on the type of star and it's orientation to us.

Google found this along with several hundred other relevant hits:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2311-supernova-poised-to-go-off-near-earth.html

That article says the minimum safe-distance from a supernova is as little as 150LY. Not 7500.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

That article says the minimum safe-distance from a supernova is as little as 150LY. Not 7500.

Either way, we're pretty much screwed if one of our neighbors gets hot and bothered.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'd be more concerned about magnetars than supernovae.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

I used to put quarters in the Gravitar machine.

James, to comment on your throw away line at the bottom of your post: Sol will likely expand well beyond our orbital distance before collapsing to a dwarf. Going nova isn't likely. You'll have plenty of time to ramp up the SPF and get a good tan before the end.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I used to put quarters in the Gravitar machine.

James, to comment on your throw away line at the bottom of your post: Sol will likely expand well beyond our orbital distance before collapsing to a dwarf. Going nova isn't likely. You'll have plenty of time to ramp up the SPF and get a good tan before the end.

I know I'll be glad not to be around in 5 billion years, when the sun swells up and eats the inner planets.

 

[Luckyflux]

I remember when I was a young kid, not even in the double digits of age, my Dad telling me that the Sun will explode in 5 billon years. Now here I am thirty years later and I am the one telling my GF's kid that the Sun will explode in 5 billon years....

I remember it scared the crap out of me when I was so young.

 

[sojourner]

The radiation from a star going supernova Could eradicate most life on earth from as far away as 7500LY depending on the type of star and it's orientation to us.

Google found this along with several hundred other relevant hits:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2311-supernova-poised-to-go-off-near-earth.html

That article says the minimum safe-distance from a supernova is as little as 150LY. Not 7500.

I know, which is why I mentioned the "several hundred other relevant hits" and "could". You seemed to have missed that I was making the point that if a star 7500ly away can destroy most life on Earth, one 5ly away can definitely do it.

 

[James Wright]

Would the results of a star going super nova that close(150 to 7500lys) to earth leave the planet intact?
Why do you think I put that last bit at the bottom of my post, earth is going to be one big marshmellow or is that marshmelon!?
I tried to read the article mentioned, it wouldn't work.

James

 

[Lindley]

That depends on your definition of "intact". Would there still be a roughly earth-sized rock on our current orbital path? Probably.

 

[Starbreaker]

Seems like I saw a documentary that said if our own sun was to go supernova, that it would completely demolish Mercury and Venus, but wouldn't be strong enough to consume Earth, just cook the surface.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Seems like I saw a documentary that said if our own sun was to go supernova, that it would completely demolish Mercury and Venus, but wouldn't be strong enough to consume Earth, just cook the surface.

The Sun isn't massive enough to become a supernova in the same way as the supergiants will, plus it lacks a close stellar partner to undergo a type I supernova. When it does expire, it will probably form a white dwarf and planetary nebula.

As it does expire, it might consume the Earth as it swells in size and becomes a Red Giant, but I'm not sure if it will grow to a circumference bigger than Earth's orbit, which is how it seemed when I first learned about the fate of the Sun.

 

[seigezunt]

I remember when I was a young kid, not even in the double digits of age, my Dad telling me that the Sun will explode in 5 billon years. Now here I am thirty years later and I am the one telling my GF's kid that the Sun will explode in 5 billon years....

I remember it scared the crap out of me when I was so young.

I remember the same sort of thing, and the explanation that "oh, we'll all be dead by then."

"w-wait. I'm going to DIE?!?"

 

[James Wright]

I remember seeing something on a documentary about the earth getting pushed into another orbit further out as the sun expands in its' red giant phase, nobody can be sure about what exactly will happen to the earth though!

James

 

[James Wright]

I'm not saying this is possible, but what woud happen if you could get a matter-antimatter device into the core of a star in the early stages of going super nova and then boosting the device sort of like the Greenhouse Item nuclear device of May 25,1951?

James

 

[sojourner]

It would be like listening for a pin drop during a thunderstorm.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Good question,

In the event that a star goes supernova 500 LY from us, you must take into account that the energy from the supernova would take 500 years to reach us. With that said, in the event that the star's pole was not pointed towards us we'd probably be okay. In the event it's poles were pointed towards us, we'd get irradiated by a gamma-ray burst.

 

[James Wright]

Good question,

In the event that a star goes supernova 500 LY from us, you must take into account that the energy from the supernova would take 500 years to reach us. With that said, in the event that the star's pole was not pointed towards us we'd probably be okay. In the event it's poles were pointed towards us, we'd get irradiated by a gamma-ray burst.

You mean like the star betelgeuse!

James

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Good question,

In the event that a star goes supernova 500 LY from us, you must take into account that the energy from the supernova would take 500 years to reach us. With that said, in the event that the star's pole was not pointed towards us we'd probably be okay. In the event it's poles were pointed towards us, we'd get irradiated by a gamma-ray burst.

You mean like the star betelgeuse!

James

The whole situation with Betelgeuse fascinates me. There was recent talk that astrophysicists believed it was shrinking in diameter at a greater rate over the last few years of study. I remember learning astronomy as a child that it was one of those many recognised "variable stars" but could it be ready to go supernova sooner than we think? We'd almost certainly see it happen in the next 500 years or so, suggesting that it may even already have happened as we speak (poor Zaphod!).

I also read a while ago that its poles aren't aligned in our direction, so we should be safe from any gamma ray burst.