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I just had the horrific thought of what if some nearby interstellar event zaps all of earth with a deadly blast of fatal radiation killing all life in a matter

I just had the horrific thought of what if some nearby interstellar event zaps all of earth with a deadly blast of fatal radiation killing all life in a matter of days. Is this possible and is there anything in the archaeological record hinting this may have happened?

solomatov 9y ago
There're theories that this happened in the past: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070420-extinctions.html https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070420-exti...
- jake-low 9y ago
  > "The movement [of the Milky Way] is not edge-on like a Frisbee," Melott noted. Instead, he said, it is flat, "like a pie in the face." Huh, I didn't know that, and now I have a great mental picture to accompany that fact. For anyone who skimmed and is wondering "How long before another mass extinction, according to this theory?", the answer is in the last sentence (on page 2): we've still got 10 million good years.
Rifu 9y ago
Gamma ray bursts can happen at anytime![0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLykC1VN7NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLykC1VN7NY
- djsumdog 9y ago
  I remember learning about this. I wonder if Earth was enveloped in such a burst, if we'd go out quickly, peacefully, like a heart attack in our sleep. Most life wiped out on our planet in an instant. It makes you wonder how many world out there contain the empty structures of civilizations that went out in an instant, with a whisper.
  - stjohnswarts 9y ago
    I just hope we can even find a xeno microbe to put another nail in the coffin of organized religion.
  - bugs_bunny 9y ago
    It wouldn't be quick, and it would be ugly, as explained in... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090403-gamma-ray-extinction.html https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090403-gamm... and https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-deadly-would-a-nearby-gamma-ray-burst-be/ https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-deadly-would-a-nearby... BUT, such events are (apparently) every billion years or so...
    - danielbarla 9y ago
      I think that on average, there's a GRB close enough to us to matter once every billion years or so. However, it'd still need to be aligned perfectly to hit us, making the actual extinction event far less likely.
T-A 9y ago
https://www.space.com/5081-real-death-star-strike-earth.html https://www.space.com/5081-real-death-star-strike-earth.html
jlebrech 9y ago
We need to start a colony on Mars as backup
- cozzyd 9y ago
  Mars has no magnetic field and very little atmosphere, which makes it a terrible place to avoid cosmic rays.
  - greglindahl 9y ago
    ... and because of these first 2 facts will probably have living quarters underground. Which is a good way to avoid cosmic rays.
    - Scarblac 9y ago
      Then it seems slightly easier to just have some people living underground here on earth.
    - gambiting 9y ago
      You know what's even better than dirt at stopping radiation? Water. And we have lots of it. 10km of water at the bottom of the Mariana trench should stop any amount of radiation that could hit Earth.
      - thaumasiotes 9y ago
        On the other hand, we can live underground, but we can't live underwater.
        gambiting 9y ago
        Both require living in some sort of pressurized container, unless you assume we could live in underground caves(but those can't be very deep so probably not good enough). Obviously the underwater one would require more engineering, but probably still less than one needed for Mars.
markkat 9y ago
Hopefully it’s less than 1 day in length, so those on the far side of earth are shielded.
lasermike026 9y ago
We humans are going to have to do more science and engineering if we are going to survive longer in this dangerous universe. First we must survive ourselves. The earths immediate problems are nuclear weapons and human generated climate change.
empath75 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_extinction_events#Gamma_ray_burst_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_ex...
0kto 9y ago
The one time working inside a nuclear plant probably puts you in a environment with lower than ambient levels :)

solomatov 9y ago

There're theories that this happened in the past: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070420-extinctions.html https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070420-exti...

jake-low 9y ago
> "The movement [of the Milky Way] is not edge-on like a Frisbee," Melott noted. Instead, he said, it is flat, "like a pie in the face." Huh, I didn't know that, and now I have a great mental picture to accompany that fact. For anyone who skimmed and is wondering "How long before another mass extinction, according to this theory?", the answer is in the last sentence (on page 2): we've still got 10 million good years.

Rifu 9y ago

Gamma ray bursts can happen at anytime![0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLykC1VN7NY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLykC1VN7NY

djsumdog 9y ago
I remember learning about this. I wonder if Earth was enveloped in such a burst, if we'd go out quickly, peacefully, like a heart attack in our sleep. Most life wiped out on our planet in an instant. It makes you wonder how many world out there contain the empty structures of civilizations that went out in an instant, with a whisper.
- stjohnswarts 9y ago
  I just hope we can even find a xeno microbe to put another nail in the coffin of organized religion.
- bugs_bunny 9y ago
  It wouldn't be quick, and it would be ugly, as explained in... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090403-gamma-ray-extinction.html https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090403-gamm... and https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-deadly-would-a-nearby-gamma-ray-burst-be/ https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/how-deadly-would-a-nearby... BUT, such events are (apparently) every billion years or so...
  - danielbarla 9y ago
    I think that on average, there's a GRB close enough to us to matter once every billion years or so. However, it'd still need to be aligned perfectly to hit us, making the actual extinction event far less likely.

T-A 9y ago

https://www.space.com/5081-real-death-star-strike-earth.html https://www.space.com/5081-real-death-star-strike-earth.html

jlebrech 9y ago

We need to start a colony on Mars as backup

cozzyd 9y ago
Mars has no magnetic field and very little atmosphere, which makes it a terrible place to avoid cosmic rays.
- greglindahl 9y ago
  ... and because of these first 2 facts will probably have living quarters underground. Which is a good way to avoid cosmic rays.
  - Scarblac 9y ago
    Then it seems slightly easier to just have some people living underground here on earth.
  - gambiting 9y ago
    You know what's even better than dirt at stopping radiation? Water. And we have lots of it. 10km of water at the bottom of the Mariana trench should stop any amount of radiation that could hit Earth.
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      On the other hand, we can live underground, but we can't live underwater.
      - gambiting 9y ago
        Both require living in some sort of pressurized container, unless you assume we could live in underground caves(but those can't be very deep so probably not good enough). Obviously the underwater one would require more engineering, but probably still less than one needed for Mars.

markkat 9y ago

Hopefully it’s less than 1 day in length, so those on the far side of earth are shielded.

lasermike026 9y ago

We humans are going to have to do more science and engineering if we are going to survive longer in this dangerous universe. First we must survive ourselves. The earths immediate problems are nuclear weapons and human generated climate change.

empath75 9y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_extinction_events#Gamma_ray_burst_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_ex...

0kto 9y ago

The one time working inside a nuclear plant probably puts you in a environment with lower than ambient levels :)