5 ms·
Not a dumb question! It's answered in the GRB wikipedia article: "Life surviving an initial onslaught, including those located on the side of the earth facing
by tomr_stargazer 12y ago
Not a dumb question! It's answered in the GRB wikipedia article:
"Life surviving an initial onslaught, including those located on the side of the earth facing away from the burst, would have to contend with the potentially lethal after-effect of the depletion of the atmosphere's protective ozone layer by the burst."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst#Rate_of_occurrence_and_potential_effects_on_life_on_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst#Rate_of_occurr...
- TrainedMonkey 12y agoThat was my first question after I learned about GRB. According to wikipedia you linked, atmosphere might be sufficient to protect from gamma rays, unfortunately at a very high cost to stratosphere. "The greatest danger is believed to come from Wolf–Rayet stars, regarded by astronomers as likely GRB candidates. When such stars transition to supernovae, they may emit intense beams of gamma rays, and if Earth were to lie in the beam zone, devastating effects may occur. Gamma rays would not penetrate Earth's atmosphere to impact the surface directly, but they would chemically damage the stratosphere."