Related papers: Mass extinctions and supernova explosions
Giant eruptions or supernova-impostor events are far more mysterious than true supernovae. An extreme example can release as much radiative energy as a SN, ejecting several M_sun of material. These events involve continuous radiation-driven…
Most gamma ray bursts are able to be explained using supernovae related phenomenon. Some measured results still lack compelling explanations and a contributory cause from nuclear criticality is proposed. This is shown to have general…
We consider global catastrophic risks due to cosmic explosions (supernovae, magnetars and gamma-ray bursts) and possible mitigation strategies by humans and other hypothetical intelligent beings. While by their very nature these events are…
There is growing evidence that long and hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), discovered at redshifts between 0.4 and 3.4, are related to some type of supernova (SN) explosions. The GRB ejecta are ultra-relativistic, and possibly beamed. There is a…
Mass loss bridges the gap between massive stars and supernovae (SNe) in two major ways: (i) theoretically it is the amount of mass lost that determines the mass of the star prior to explosion, and (ii) observations of the circumstellar…
We review recent work aimed at modeling species extinction over geological time. We discuss a number of models which, rather than dealing with the direct causes of particular extinction events, attempt to predict overall statistical trends,…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the must violent explosions after the Big-Bang. Their high energy radiation can potentially carry information about the most inner part of the accretion disk of a collapsing star, ionize the surrounding material…
Asteroid impacts with the Earth may have played an essential role in the emergence of life on Earth through their creation of favorable niches for life, changes to the atmosphere and delivery of water. Consequently, we suggest two potential…
Cosmic explosions dissipate energy into their surroundings on a very wide range of time-scales: producing shock waves and associated particle acceleration. The historical culprits for the acceleration of the bulk of Galactic cosmic rays are…
The ultimate climate emergency is a "runaway greenhouse": a hot and water vapour rich atmosphere limits the emission of thermal radiation to space, causing runaway warming. Warming ceases only once the surface reaches ~1400K and emits…
Compared to the giant planets in the solar system, exoplanets have many remarkable properties such as the prevalence of giant planets on eccentric orbits and the presence of hot Jupiters. Planet-planet scattering (PPS) between giant planets…
The origin of life and the origin of the universe are among the most important problems of science and they might be inextricably linked. Hydro-gravitational-dynamics (HGD) cosmology predicts hydrogen-helium gas planets in clumps as the…
A number of authors have in recent years proposed that the processes of macroevolution may give rise to self-organized critical phenomena which could have a significant effect on the dynamics of ecosystems. In particular it has been…
Solar eruptions generally refer to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and flares. Both are important sources of space weather. Solar flares cause sudden change in the ionization level in the ionosphere. CMEs cause solar energetic particle (SEP)…
A complete model for the origin of high-energy >~10^{14} eV) cosmic rays from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and implications of this hypothesis are described. Detection of high-energy neutrinos from GRBs provide an unambiguous test of the model.…
The energy source of the giant HI supershells in nearby galaxies and in our own is still an unsettled issue. Proposed scenarios for production of near-complete ringlike supershells are multiple supernovae (SNe) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).…
Twenty years ago, after analysing palaeontological data, Raup and Sepkoski suggested that mass extinctions on Earth appear cyclically in time with a period of approximately 26 million years (My). To explain the 26My period, a number of…
Cosmological models with cosmic string and texture seeded universes predict a present abundance of very dense clumps of Cold Dark Matter particles. Their crossing through the solar system would induce a non-negligible amount of radiation…
Globally disruptive events include asteroid/comet impacts, large igneous provinces and glaciations, all of which have been considered as contributors to mass extinctions. Understanding the overall relationship between the timings of the…
In a recent paper, we applied time series analysis methods to study the possible influence of the solar motion through the Galaxy on terrestrial extinction (Feng & Bailer-Jones 2013). We drew conclusions about the relative probabilities of…