2023-05-11 10:45:48
It has been discovered that the atmospheres of planets in solar systems up to 160 light-years away from a supernova can suffer severe damage, capable of compromising the habitability of such worlds, due to a hitherto unknown phase of the supernova explosion process. .
The finding was made in a study conducted using data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray space observatory and other X-ray telescopes. The research was carried out by a team led from the University of Illinois at Urbana. -Champaign, Washburn University and the University of Kansas, all three in the United States.
Before this study, most research on the effects of supernova explosions focused on the danger of two phases of the process: the phase of the intense radiation produced by the supernova in the days and months after the explosion, and the phase of the arrival of energetic particles hundreds or thousands of years later.
However, even these alarming threats do not complete the list of dangers derived from these stellar explosions. Ian Brunton’s team, formerly at the University of Illinois and now at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center, has discovered that between those two previously identified phases another lurks. Supernovae always carry an emission of X-rays, but if the supernova shock wave collides with the surrounding dense gas, it can produce a particularly large dose of X-rays that arrives months or years after the explosion and can last for decades.
The calculations in this latest study are based on X-ray observations of 31 supernovae and the subsequent events they brought about. Most of the observations were made on the Chandra mission, NASA’s Swift and NuSTAR missions, and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) XMM-Newton mission. Analysis of these observations shows that supernovae interacting with their environment can have lethal consequences for planets up to 160 light-years away.
If a torrent of X-rays were to sweep through a planet within that supernova radius, the radiation would seriously alter the planet’s atmospheric chemistry. In the case of a star similar to Earth, this process could destroy a significant part of the ozone layer, which protects life against dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the star around which the planet orbits.
Artist’s impression of a planet with a nearby supernova. (Image: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss)
If a planet with a biology comparable to Earth’s were to receive sustained high-energy radiation from a nearby supernova, especially one that strongly interacted with its surroundings, it could result in the annihilation of a wide range of organisms, especially in the marine environments that are at the bottom of the food chain. These effects could be large enough to trigger a mass extinction.
The Earth is not currently in danger of such a threat because there are no stars capable of generating sufficiently powerful supernova explosions within 160 light-years, but the planet may have experienced this type of exposure. to X-rays in the past.
The study is titled “X-Ray-luminous supernovae: threats to terrestrial biospheres”. And it has been published in the academic journal Astrophysical Journal. (Fountain: NCYT de Amazings)
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