Supernovas may have played a role in two of Earth’s largest mass extinctions, study suggests
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violent Supernovas It may cause two of the largest collective extinction on the ground that was not completely explained, according to a theory that was presented in a new research.
During the last stages of the life of a little star, the trick of her death is crowned in a strong thermal nuclear explosion – a supernova – which usually destroys the heavenly organism, unleashed materials and radiation.
A research team linked nearby stellar explosions with at least one, perhaps two, the collective dies after calculating the average super-stars closest to the sun-within 65 light years-during the past 1 billion years.
The work was part of a wider survey in Milky Way galaxy Of the rare and huge stars of the type O and B, which are not less than the relatively age, using data from the European Space Agency Gaia Space telescope.
Accounts suggested that 2.5 Supernovas may affect the Earth somehow every billion years, which is equivalent to one or two in the past 500 million years in which life has developed on this planet.
Nick Wright, the co -author of the study published on Tuesday in the magazine, said the average is less than what was previously thought. Monthly notifications of the Royal Astronomical Society. This perception led to Wright and shared it in linking the cosmic phenomenon to collective extinction on the ground. The catastrophic events occurred five times in the past 500 million years, killing most types of water and lands on a relatively short geological break.
“It is possible that this may have an effect that may affect extinction events,” said Wright, a lecturer in physics and astronomical physics and a colleague Ernest Roireford at Kelly University in the United Kingdom.
The author of the study Alexis Quintana said that the results highlight how the huge stars created and destroyed life.
“The Supernova explosions bring heavy chemical elements to the middle between the stars, which are then used to form new stars and planets,” Quintana, a post -doctoral researcher in Kelly, is currently at the University of Alkantei in Spain. “But if the planet – including Earth – is located near this type of events, this may have devastating effects.”
Collective extinction is not interpreted on the ground
In the study, the researchers did not provide any evidence that the supernova caused mass extinction. Instead, the team assumed that the stellar explosion may be a possible factor at the late Devonian extinction event 372 million years ago and one at the end of the late Ordovician 445 million years ago. The team suggested that Supernova may have stripped the ozone layer that protects the land from harmful radiation, which leads to a Chain of events It can cause mass extinction.
During Devonian, life flourished on Earth for the first time, but early wild plants and animals transported from water to Earth were wiped, along with armored fish and other marine species. A catastrophic transformation at the end of Ordovician led to the disappearance of about 85 % of species At a time when life was often limited to the seas.
“Their association with that collective extinction, especially the late late, is due to the proposed result of such an explosion near the Earth, which we know that it happened at the time. So, it is an open hypothesis, but it lacks evidence,” said Mike Penton, a professor of spine at the University of Al -Braik at the United Kingdom.
“I would like to see a calibration of such historical events to show that one of them has already occurred at the same time that the collective extinction of the concerned occurred – we have these geological events reasonably dated, but we need a way to date the supernova explosions of the deep past.” He is the author “” “ExtinctionHow life remains, adapts and develops. ”
Paul Wenal, a professor of the holy environment at the University of Leeds at the United Kingdom, called interesting research and said it was not the first time The concept of supernova extinction It has arisen. He said what is required is concrete evidence that extinction coincided with Supernovas.
“This can come from the strange elements obtained from the explosion and faces small amounts in the sedimentary record.”
Dino Catter
Heavenly events raised at least one group extinction, according to scientific evidence. A asteroid of city the size of the city on the ground off the coast of what is now Mexico in one day fateful 66 million years ago, Domines And many other types of extinction.
The researchers first identified the cause of the peripheral peripheral extinction by discovering “IRIDIMUM”-a thick (0.4-inch) sedimentary layer of sedimentary rocks rich in Redium, which is a rare element on the surface of the earth but is common in meteorites. A study describing the result has been published In June 1980.
Ultimately, I eventually met, Iridium was seen anomalies in more and more places around the world. After a decade, the researchers specified at the level of 200 km (125 miles) hole Off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
“Ireidium enriched in the chapter -border deposits/Pallowene that was very convincing“ smoking pistol ”for the extinction of dinosaurs when the idea was first published in 1980. Wignall said via email, in reference to the elements that could be a sign of Supernova.
Iron-60 is a radioactive variable of unwilling iron on the ground but is produced in large quantities in Supernova explosions. Wright also said that it may be possible to measure ozone exhaustion in rocks and sediments.
Recent studies Collective extinction events show that they are usually a series of subordinate events, which often result from large -scale volcanic eruptions, which are getting worse gradually.
“It is difficult to see how the supernova will suit such a scenario,” he said. “Initially, before things become very bad or at its peak when things are already going?”
Wright said that his team’s work was to draw attention to the new Supernova chronological time scope that the researchers set. “I think there were many people who would really say, you do not know the cause of extinction. Then some may say we expect a lot. What we want to do is drawing attention to the numbers.”
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