Related papers: Ozone Depletion from Nearby Supernovae
Ozone in Earth's atmosphere is known to have a radiative forcing effect on climate. Motivated by geochemical evidence for one or more nearby supernovae about 2.6 million years ago, we have investigated the question of whether a supernova at…
Based on cosmological rates, it is probable that at least once in the last Gy the Earth has been irradiated by a gamma-ray burst in our Galaxy from within 2 kpc. Using a two-dimensional atmospheric model we have performed the first…
We examine the possibility that a nearby supernova explosion could have caused one or more of the mass extinctions identified by palaeontologists. We discuss the likely rate of such events in the light of the recent identification of…
We investigated the potential biological impacts at Earth's surface of stratospheric O3 depletion caused by nearby supernovae known to have occurred about 2.5 and 8 million years ago at about 50 pc distance. New and previously published…
Recent 60Fe results have suggested that the estimated distances of supernovae in the last few million years should be reduced from 100 pc to 50 pc. Two events or series of events are suggested, one about 2.7 million years to 1.7 million…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are likely to have made a number of significant impacts on the Earth during the last billion years. We have used a two-dimensional atmospheric model to investigate the effects on the Earth's atmosphere of GRBs…
Recent studies of the effects on the Earth's atmosphere by astrophysical sources, such as nearby gamma-ray bursts or supernovae, have shown that these events could lead to severe changes in atmospheric composition. Depletion of ozone, the…
The oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere 2.3 billion years ago, which on exoplanets is expected to be most detectable via the UV ozone feature at $\sim$0.25 $\mu$m, is often regarded as a sign of the emergence of photosynthetic life. On…
The Late Devonian was a protracted period of low speciation resulting in biodiversity decline, culminating in extinction events near the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Recent evidence indicates that the final extinction event may have…
It is likely that one or more gamma-ray bursts within our galaxy have strongly irradiated the Earth in the last Gy. This produces significant atmospheric ionization and dissociation, resulting in ozone depletion and DNA-damaging ultraviolet…
Recent results have strongly confirmed that multiple supernovae happened at distances ~100 pc consisting of two main events: one at 1.7 to 3.2 million years ago, and the other at 6.5 to 8.7 million years ago. These events are said to be…
It has been suggested that galactic shock asymmetry induced by our galaxy's infall toward the Virgo Cluster may be a source of periodicity in cosmic ray exposure as the solar system oscillates perpendicular to the galactic plane. Here we…
Supernova explosions are one of the most energetic--and potentially lethal--phenomena in the Universe. Scientists have speculated for decades about the possible consequences for life on Earth of a nearby supernova, but plausible candidates…
A nearby supernova (SN) explosion could have negatively influenced life on Earth, maybe even been responsible for mass extinctions. Mass extinction poses a significant extinction of numerous species on Earth, as recorded in the…
About 15%-60% of all supernova remnants are estimated to interact with dense molecular clouds. In these high density environments, radiative losses are significant. The cooling radiation can be observed in forbidden lines at optical…
Astrophysical ionizing radiation events such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and solar proton events have been recognized as a potential threat to life on Earth, primarily through depletion of stratospheric ozone and subsequent increase in…
We have reevaluated recent studies of the effects on Earth by cosmic rays (CRs) from nearby supernovae (SNe) at 100 and 50 pc, in the diffusive transport CR case, here including an early-time suppression at lower CR energies neglected in…
The fastest ejecta of supernova explosions propagate as a precursor to the main supernova shock wave, and can be quite energetic. The spectrum of such fast ejecta is estimated based on recent analytic and numerical supernova models, and…
Molecular oxygen in our atmosphere has increased from less than a part per million in the Archean Eon, to a fraction of a percent in the Proterozoic, and finally to modern levels during the Phanerozoic. The ozone layer formed with the early…
We continue former work on the modeling of potential effects of Gamma Ray Bursts on Phanerozoic Earth. We focus on global biospheric effects of ozone depletion and show a first modeling of the spectral reduction of light by NO2 formed in…