115 What will happen on Earth if a nearby star explodes?
Description
This article is from the Astronomy FAQ, by Joseph Lazio (jlazio@patriot.net) with numerous contributions by others.
115 What will happen on Earth if a nearby star explodes?
A nice article by Michael Richmond <mwrsps@rit.edu> may be found at
<URL:http://a188-L009.rit.edu/richmond/answers/snrisks.txt>. His
conclusion is:
"I suspect that a type II explosion must be within a few parsecs of
the Earth, certainly less than 10 pc, to pose a danger to life on
Earth. I suspect that a type Ia explosion, due to the larger amount
of high-energy radiation, could be several times farther away. My
guess is that the X-ray and gamma-ray radiation are the most important
at large distances."
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