Supernova at 10 Light years

steve01 · Aug 26, 2004

What if an imaginary massive star 10 light years away from earth went supernova. obviously in ten years time we would see the visual effects but, how long would we have before the physical explosion engulfed us? And would we be fubar'd?

steve01 · Aug 26, 2004

so as soon as we optically viewed it we would also feel the effects of the raidation? right. What if it was angled in such a way that it only exposed the southern or northern hemisphere? would the radiation propagate through the atmosphere or would the population in the other hemisphere be spared until the shock-wave hit?

igorsboss · Aug 27, 2004

There is not much in the way of air exchange between the northern and southern hemispheres The weather looks that way because there is a net inflow of heat at the equator, and a net outflow of heat at the poles. Air and water transport that energy convectively from hot to cold, forming storms along the way. If there was a very large net inflow of energy at one of the poles, the energy would find a way to flow from the hot pole to the cold pole. The weather patterns would look very different for a while.

nacnud · Aug 28, 2004

Supernove at 10 light years? Umm nice crunchy humanity /homer

silylene old · Aug 28, 2004

It might be pretty as the oceans light up in a fleeting flash of Cherenkov blue as some of the water molecules are struck by the supernova's neutrinos. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center">I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function. </div> </div>

chew_on_this · Aug 30, 2004

..."hype and tripe"... sounds familiar

aaron38 · Aug 31, 2004

If the light from Sirius was shining through an interstellar gas cloud, could that make it's light apear red, like the sun at sunset? The cloud would be extremely tenuous, but it could be light years instead of a hundred miles. And with changing star positions, the cloud could have moved off.

Saiph · Aug 31, 2004

that could work, however I don't recall any nebulae nearby (quite the opposite really) and only 8ly of depth means the reddening effect is going to be minimal. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

toothferry · Sep 5, 2004

how far from a supernova would Earth need to be to escape serious damage from the radiation?

Saiph · Sep 7, 2004

The closest I'd want one is ~50ly. I think we're down to skin cancer for anyone outside at that point. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

Saiph · Sep 7, 2004

while a Supernovae's primary radiation is in the x-ray and higher energies, a significan portion is also in the UV band <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

Saiph · Sep 8, 2004

UV also destroys the ozone layer. Get a strong enough burst, an a SN can punch it's own hole. Here's a neat tidbit I picked up at a conference last spring: Simulations of gamma ray bursters show that the gamma rays from one in our galaxy could easily effect weather patterns to a noticible or even dangerous extent. Significant effects occur even when the GRB is thousands of light years away. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> --------------------SaiphMOD@gmail.com -------------------"This is my Timey Wimey Detector. Goes "bing" when there's stuff. It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually. I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink" </div>

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