Exploding Star May Have Damaged Life on Earth

Reedo writes "Scientists have proposed that an ancient supernova may have damaged our ozone layer, wreaking havok on terrestrial life. Previously no one had realized that a cluster of stars could have been so close to the earth during that time. But don't worry about it happening again anytime soon. The next expected supernova is nearly 500,000 light-years away and is too far from the earth to cause any damage."

Comments

doh!

[flynt]

But don't worry about it happening again anytime soon. The next expected supernova is nearly 500,000 light-years away and is too far from the earth to cause any damage."

Too bad, I was thinking of a way out of doing my math homework tonight.

Re:doh!

[prizzznecious]

That's not funny. My dog died in a supernova. I miss you Fluffy.

500000 light years?

[MillionthMonkey]

From the article:
The next member of the gang expected to go supernova is Antares, which at almost 500,000 light-years away is too distant to rattle our planet, they say.

What kind of dope are these astronomers smoking? Antares is 500 light years away.

Still quite distant, but 500000 light years will place you well outside the Milky way. It's about as far as the Magellanic clouds.

Re:500000 light years?

[Ellen Ripley]

What kind of dope are these astronomers smoking?

CNN was smoking the dope. Other sources reported 500 light-years. :-)

Ellen

Effect on evolution?

[cybermage]

Makes you wonder if we're here to discover it happened because it happened.

Re:Inane

[snowlick]

"But Maiz-Appellanis and Benitez did some detective work and came up with the likely culprit -- a volatile star pack known as the Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association, which passed relatively near the solar system several million years ago."

A google search turned up:
The association is embedded in a large roughly circular structure; this is a huge bubble of hot gas created by the stellar winds of the numerous massive stars in the association and by several super-nova explosions, which happened in the Scorpius Centaurus association during the last few million years.

So supernovas have happened in our local bubble, and evidently quite close.

Next expected supernova

[NormalVisual]

It probably should be clarified that the statement about Antares being the next probable supernova really meant "Antares is the next likely SN candidate in that cluster". For quite some time, astronomers have been keeping an eye on Eta Carinae, which is about somewhere between 7.5K and 10K light years away, but could possibly let go at any time. It will likely be quite harmless except to astronauts and orbiting spacecraft (there is some discussion regarding whether it could become a gamma ray burster), but quite spectacular to see. There just aren't any sufficiently massive stars close enough to us to really worry about supernovas anytime soon.