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>lethal levels of neutrino radiation I doubt that is even physically possible. Neutrinos are nearly impossible to detect because they don't interact with norm

>lethal levels of neutrino radiation I doubt that is even physically possible. Neutrinos are nearly impossible to detect because they don't interact with normal matter. In fact, I'm not sure they interact with much of anything. Does anybody know if they do interact with any other elementary particles? Your point about concentrating on more likely risks is a good one though.

InclinedPlane 16y ago
Yes, neutrinos are incredibly weakly interacting. However, Type II supernovae dump the vast majority (99%) of their energy into neutrino radiation. Moreover, the extremely high energies of supernova neutrinos (MeV range) increases their interaction cross-section as well as the damage they can do when they do interact. If a supernova (or hypernova) were to occur close enough to Earth it could cause a mass extinction due to neutrino radiation alone. Consider, supernova 1987A radiated so many neutrinos that it increased the neutrino flux at Earth by 10,000x compared to the Solar flux. That event happened in a neighboring galaxy 168,000 light-years away, an event a mere 20 light-years away would result in a neutrino flux 70 million times greater than that (700 billion times normal background levels). A hypernova would release over 100 times as much energy. Indeed, some researchers believe that some mass extinctions in Earth's past might be due to such events: http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9505028 http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9505028 Fortunately for us stars that would be both large enough to go supernova and close enough to present such a threat should be quite bright and thus very unlikely to have escaped our notice (hypernovae candidates as well, if we're lucky).
- Groxx 16y ago
  That is way more information about neutrinos than I ever expected to find in a discussion about prions. Fascinating. Thanks for the info! And, to reply up a couple levels: some cheeseburgers, yes.

InclinedPlane 16y ago

Yes, neutrinos are incredibly weakly interacting. However, Type II supernovae dump the vast majority (99%) of their energy into neutrino radiation. Moreover, the extremely high energies of supernova neutrinos (MeV range) increases their interaction cross-section as well as the damage they can do when they do interact. If a supernova (or hypernova) were to occur close enough to Earth it could cause a mass extinction due to neutrino radiation alone. Consider, supernova 1987A radiated so many neutrinos that it increased the neutrino flux at Earth by 10,000x compared to the Solar flux. That event happened in a neighboring galaxy 168,000 light-years away, an event a mere 20 light-years away would result in a neutrino flux 70 million times greater than that (700 billion times normal background levels). A hypernova would release over 100 times as much energy. Indeed, some researchers believe that some mass extinctions in Earth's past might be due to such events: http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9505028 http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9505028 Fortunately for us stars that would be both large enough to go supernova and close enough to present such a threat should be quite bright and thus very unlikely to have escaped our notice (hypernovae candidates as well, if we're lucky).

Groxx 16y ago
That is way more information about neutrinos than I ever expected to find in a discussion about prions. Fascinating. Thanks for the info! And, to reply up a couple levels: some cheeseburgers, yes.