Super Nova Survivor

[palmona]

What would happen if there was a super nova closer to home? Mightn't one explain the mass extintions that occurred during Permian-Triassic event?

[ta152h0]

When Eta Carinae goes kablooyee, will it affect the earth ?? I mean " big kaboom " .

[S. Bilderback]

You question needs to be a little more . . . not so vague. If you are wondering if one of the near-by stars went super nova, would it vaporize the Earth - most likely not, nor would it strip away the atmosphere. It could be equivalent to a big solar flare, in my opinion, the worst case it would tear-up the ionosphere possibly causing widespread death.
I don't remember which one, but an early mass extinction did coincide in time with a near-by super nova blast.

[palmona]

I don't remember which one, but an early mass extinction did coincide in time with a near-by super nova blast.

That's very interesting, Bilderback.

I am not at all convinced that an asteroid crashing into earch was the cause of the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period that killed off as much as 90% of all species on this planet; nor do I find it believable that an astroid caused the extinctions during the Triassic & Jurassic periods.

Can you explain why the astroid theory is more widely accepted by astronomers than a nearby super nova. Seems to me the geographical evidence would point to the latter. Thanks!

[palmona]

I found a general discussion of this question here

[makc]

Can you explain why the astroid theory is more widely accepted by astronomers than a nearby super nova.

There were two craters of matching age found on the floor of Mexican gulf. This finding even made an APOD once. Also, search for Chicxulub on the web ([1], [2]).

2nd thing is not really related, but I'll shoot it any way.

In the equivalent of spotting a bonfire at the dawn of time, NASA's orbiting Swift satellite has detected the most-distant exploding star — a cosmic suicide that took place just 500 million years or so after the creation of the universe, scientists say.

Located 12.6 billion light years from Earth, the explosion shows that giant stars formed earlier than previously thought.

It's thought that a gamma ray burst occurs somewhere in the universe virtually every day. Yet because the bursts last, at most, a few minutes, detecting them as they happened was impossible before Swift.

In this case, Swift picked up the first evidence of an explosion lasting 200 seconds — said to be the longest on record — on Sept. 4. It relayed word to astronomers, who confirmed the finding by tuning in to the burst's afterglow, which can last several days.

"This is uncharted territory," said University of North Carolina astronomer Daniel Reichart. "This burst smashes the old distance record by 500 million light years. We are finally starting to see the remnants of some of the oldest objects in the universe."

[Empeda]

That's a Gamma Ray Burst and it's a different kettle of fish altogether - if one of those went off in our galaxy we could be in big trouble...

They're believed to be the result of a Hypernova - a massive supernova basically, but produce absolutely massive amounts of energy. Since a hypernova is cause by supermassive stars, you could say that a GRB is the birth-cry of a new black hole..... 8)