Supernov could have caused life -threatening changes in the ancient land climate. Scientists say that this may be repeated

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New research shows that the death of mass stars known as supernova may have had a dramatic effect on our planet’s climate through its distant history. The study of historical incidents of these events could help scientists to predict similar events in the future and prepare for them.

Supernova occurs when stars that are much more massive than the sun reach the end of their nuclear fuel supply and can no longer support themselves from their own gravity. A complete gravitational collapse, which creates a neutron star or black hole, as well as sends the bloating of energy and fast particles, which in some cases can pass into star systems and all galaxies.

It is believed that if the supernova erupted over 30 light years from our planet, our atmosphere would be brutally torn and all life on Earth would perish. Thus, this means that if a huge star has erupted over hundreds of light years, this space explosion may not be fatal, but can cause extreme changes in our atmosphere, says astronomers.

“We have sudden changes in the environment in the history of the Earth,” said the author and senior researcher at the Arctic and Alpine Research Institute. It’s strong, we see these changes. So what caused them?

“When nearby supernovals occur in the future, radiation can have a rather dramatic impact on human society. We need to find out if they actually have caused environmental changes in the past.”

Brakenridge is hardly the first person to consider the possibility of past and future supernoval incidents affecting the Earth’s atmosphere.

However, previous studies focused on the physics of such an event. Instead of doing so, BradGedge tried to apply these theories to empirical evidence of such events, observed both on Earth and space.

Tree rings hiding supernova explosion record

First of all, Brakenridge turned to the data from the many powerful space telescopes, which have long been collecting supernoval features.

This helped the researcher to create a more detailed model, how supernova radiation would interact with the Earth’s atmosphere than before.

This new model revealed that a sudden amount of energy photons, light particles, from Supernova, will eat the Earth’s ozone layer. This is significant because the ozone layer covers our planet against harmful sunlight.

In addition to this screen, the sun’s radiation would begin to break down methane in the stratosphere, in the second lowest layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. This molecule is the main engine of the Earth’s greenhouse effect. This means that a decreased methane, a heat trap in the greenhouse, would interfere with the ground to cool down.

In turn, this will determine that the Earth will receive more energy from the sun, which can be particularly harmful to life. Thus, Brakenridge predicts that the further effects of supernova radiation bombing land may include the disappearance of animals, increased fires and global cooling.

The fact that the Earth seems to be bombing the Supernova nearby (Phew!) Radiation, this model cannot be tested in real time. This encouraged Brakenridge to turn to the geological record of the Earth to hunt past incidents.

Particularly useful for the scientist was tree rings, which can reveal ancient atmospheric conditions. This is because the trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere into their trunks, where the flowers are formed as the tree grows, and the bombing of supernova radiation should increase radioactive carbon isotops in our planet’s atmosphere.

Brakenridge has investigated tree blossom records covering about 15,000 years and radioactive carbon-11 signal bulbs. The researcher theoretor that these spikes can match 11 times when the ground has been blown up with supernova radiation.

“The events we know about, here on Earth, are at the right time and at the right intensity,” said Brakenridge.

At the moment, the scientist cannot be fully convinced that these spikes are associated with supernova.

Another possible fault of these spikes that needs to be removed is the sun’s rays from the sun. To eliminate this opportunity, researchers can associate these tree ring results with evidence locked in other geological sources such as ice core and sediment from the ocean floor.

Related stories:

– Dead star in supernova explosions could solve Dark Mater’s secret in 10 seconds

– Massive stars’ explosions could cause two mass extinction in the Earth’s past: “It would be frightening.”

-Scientists find a rare double -star spiral condemned to supernova explosion

A further study of a possible supernova radiation and earth atmospheric relationship could help humanity prepare for future events.

This can become particularly relevant when the nearest star of the Red Giant, known as Beethelgeuse, around 700 light -years, goes supernova. This is projected to happen in the next 100,000 years.

“When we learn more about our nearby neighboring stars, there are actually opportunities to predict,” concluded Brakenridge. “Astrophysical modeling and monitoring will require more to fully understand the effects of the Earth on such events.”

The team’s study was published in the monthly reports of the Royal Astronomical Society.