SuperNova risks

[PB666]

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2016/jul/18/nearby-supernovae-could-have-affected-life-on-earth

I'm not sure this would be a widespread risk but it might cause problems for life at higher elevations. For people living in houses or even caves, the radiation would only be a factor when they are outside and outside is facing the nova.

[cubinator]

And don't forget the most important effect: If it was the right time of year and in the right plane, it might look like Tatooine!

In all seriousness, wouldn't it be cool if humanity showed up because of a bunch of stars exploding? It'd really show how connected all the universe really is, even though everything's so far from each other.

Edited July 22, 2016 by cubinator

[Green Baron]

Actually there is a hypothesis (don't have a link right now but if you search you'll find) that assumes catastrophies as a motor of evolution. Not necessarily limited to but including supernovae. To put it humorous: cleaning out always makes room for new things :-)

Maybe if the solar system was closer to the galaxy's core there'd be no life (too hard radiation), if it was out in the halo it got stuck at the level of microbes (no pressure - no selection - no evolution). Who knows ?

:-)

Edited July 22, 2016 by Green Baron

[wumpus]

While there have been plenty of documented supernovae visible in the sky over the years, I don't think any were close enough to kill anybody.  I'm pretty sure you can compute the odds of it happening to well over 1/Million years (for widespread fatalities).

On the other hand, solar flares are reasonably common.  Fortunately, unless they are directly at the Earth we don't have much issue.  However in 1859 we had an incident that certainly shocked a few telegraph operators and would knock us back before 1859 (because we don't have telegraph or gas lights).

I'm curious how much it would cost to have enough spare parts to quickly survive such an issue.  To point out a simple issue, I'd expect 99%+ cars wouldn't work (only classic and cars stored underground would work, and getting more gas would be nearly as difficult).

[Just Jim]

Not gonna lie... I often go outside at night, look up at Betelgeuse and shout "Boom!" in the hope I will get to see it will go supernova in my lifetime. 

[Green Baron]

Hehe. Beetlejuice will be a nice show for a few weeks, in the next few 100.000 years.

I hate to link to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supernova_candidates