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Seems like you got it backwards. Being outside the plane of the galaxy INCREASES the threat from supernova, not decreases it. The further from the plane the l
by sliken 8y ago
Seems like you got it backwards. Being outside the plane of the galaxy INCREASES the threat from supernova, not decreases it. The further from the plane the less gas/dust/stars etc between you and ever other star in the galaxy.
- btilly 8y agoUm, no. Intervening material does very little to cut out light. If it did, we couldn't see distant stars. However the intensity of radiation falls off as the square of the distance from the source of the radiation. Therefore the primary determinant of risk is the number of stars that could be about to go boom within the critical distance of the Sun. If we're in a less densely populated neighborhood, then our odds of seeing a dangerous supernova go down. Full stop.
- sliken 8y agoEr, there's a giant cloud of dust called the dark rift that blocks a fair bit of the center of the galaxy. We only recently started looking though it at xray wavelengths to see the center of the milky way (and the black hole there). On a clear night you can see the edges of the milky way and the giant cloud of dust.
- btilly 8y agoThat cloud is about 2000 light years away from us. The fact that there are patches of dust doesn't change the fact that we are seldom in the middle of such patches. And even when we are, it is a lot like the difference between being in light mist versus seeing it from a long ways away. We are, in fact, in the middle of a patch of "mist" called the "local fluff". See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Interstellar_Cloud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Interstellar_Cloud for more. This does not noticably cut out light between us and stars that are under 100 lightyears away.