What Happens If A Star Explodes Near The Earth?
6,591,453
Published 2022-11-15
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A massive thanks to Prof. Hans-Thomas Janka for helping us with the physics of supernovae and GRBs. A massive thanks to Prof. Brian Thomas for all of his help with the terrestrial effects of supernovae and GRBs. This video would not have been possible without them. Also thanks to Dr. Luke Barnes for his initial help with the literature search.
Hydrogen bomb vs Supernova fact was taken from this great article by xkcd/Randall Munroe – what-if.xkcd.com/73/ (based on the calculation by Andrew Karam, 2002)
Cosmic bubble footage from
www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/1000-light-year-wide-bubb…
Neutrino driven SN explosion simulations from iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/808/2…
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References:
Melott, A. et al. (2019). Hypothesis: Muon radiation dose and marine megafaunal extinction at the End-Pliocene supernova. Astrobiology, 19(6), 825-830. – ve42.co/Melott1
Thomas, B. C. et al. (2016). Terrestrial effects of nearby supernovae in the early Pleistocene. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 826(1), L3 – ve42.co/Thomas1
Melott, A. L., & Thomas, B. C. (2019). From cosmic explosions to terrestrial fires?. The Journal of Geology, 127(4), 475-481. – ve42.co/Melott2
Fields, B. et al. (2019). Near-Earth supernova explosions: Evidence, implications, and opportunities. arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.04589. – ve42.co/Fields1
Thomas, B. C., Atri, D., & Melott, A. L. (2021). Gamma-ray bursts: not so much deadlier than we thought. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500(2), 1970-1973. – ve42.co/Thomas2
Melott, A. et al. (2004). Did a gamma-ray burst initiate the late Ordovician mass extinction?. International Journal of Astrobiology, 3(1), 55-61. – ve42.co/Melott3
Firestone, R. B. (2014). Observation of 23 supernovae that exploded less than 300 pc from Earth during the past 300 kyr. The Astrophysical Journal, 789(1), 29. – ve42.co/firestone1
Janka, H. T. (2017). Neutrino emission from supernovae. arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.08713. – ve42.co/Janka1
Janka, H. T., & Hillebrandt, W. (1989). Neutrino emission from type II supernovae-an analysis of the spectra. Astronomy and astrophysics, 224, 49-56. – ve42.co/Janka2
Janka, H. T. (2017). Neutrino-driven explosions. arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.08825. – ve42.co/Janka3
Karam, P. A. (2002). Gamma and neutrino radiation dose from gamma ray bursts and nearby supernovae. Health physics, 82(4), 491-499. – ve42.co/Karam1
Melott, A. L., Thomas, et al.. (2017). A supernova at 50 pc: effects on the Earth's atmosphere and biota. The Astrophysical Journal, 840(2), 105. – ve42.co/Melott4
Ludwig, P., et al. (2016). Time-resolved 2-million-year-old supernova activity discovered in Earth’s microfossil record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(33), 9232-9237. – ve42.co/Ludwig1
Gritschneder, et al. (2011). The supernova triggered formation and enrichment of our solar system. The Astrophysical Journal, 745(1), 22. – ve42.co/Gritschneder1
Motizuki, Y., Takahashi, et al. (2009). An Antarctic ice core recording both supernovae and solar cycles. arXiv preprint arXiv:0902.3446. – ve42.co/Motizuki
Zucker, C. et al. (2022). Star formation near the Sun is driven by expansion of the Local Bubble. Nature, 601(7893), 334-337. – ve42.co/Zucker1
Hirata, K. et al.(1987). Observation of a neutrino burst from the supernova SN1987A. – ve42.co/Hirata1
Hayes, L. A., & Gallagher, P. T. (2022). A Significant Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Associated with Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 221009A. Research Notes of the AAS, 6(10), 222.
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Written by Petr Lebedev & Derek Muller
Edited by Fabio Albertelli
Animation by Fabio Albertelli, Jakub Misiek, Alex Drakoulis, Ivy Tello, Mike Radjabov, and Charlie Davies
Filmed by Derek Muller
Additional Research by Kovi Rose & Katie Barnshaw
Video/photos supplied by NASA, ESA, Pond5, and Getty Images
Music from Epidemic Sound & Jonny Hyman
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Emily Zhang
All Comments (21)
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the detail and research that goes into these videos is truly next level!! keep up the amazing work 💫
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i’m extremely proud of the way my dad explained supernovae to me when i was about 5. he told me to put my hands out, facing each other, and then he put his hands on mine. he then told me to push outwards, as hard as i can, while he pushed inwards, which made my hands collapse. he said that when a star wasn’t strong enough anymore then gravity won. now that i’m older, i’m really enjoying this more comprehensive explanation
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I was surprised a few years ago to learn that gold and heavier elements are unlikely to be created in a standard supernova but require a more extreme ultranova or similar event such as star collisions to produce special elements like gold. That just adds to how lucky we are to have such abundance of uranium, gold, etc on our planet.
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You just explained this better than anyone I've ever heard or watched😮. Well done! Mad it make sense
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I've already seen dozens of videos on Youtube about how a Supernova works, but this is another level. A complete and very well illustrated lesson in under 20 minutes. Veritasium never disappoints.
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Whenever I watch an almost 20 minute long Veritasium video, I never lose interest throughout the video and it's consistently gets my attention. The pacing of him talking quickly and pausing to make a transition makes it easier to retain the information. Also his voice is very clear and comprehensible. As always amazing stuff Veritasium, you never fail to get my attention.
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I'm left in awe at the explanation of how some tiny, tiny, weightless, harmless Neutrino... detonates the largest bombs in the known Universe. Just amazing how super-large events can have the smallest origins. Love this. Thank you.
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Dude the thumbnail literally looks like he is going to explode a star as a prank/social experiment than a documentary video
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This guy has that enthusiasm it’s like he is as amazed as his viewers. Like he’s not teaching or lecturing he is shearing information. I adore everything he does!
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Last year, I almost joined the Brian fields research group after listening to his presentation on this topic. He talked about how they had to look through sediment samples to find traces of Fe-60. I thought it was so cool that we could learn so much about the history of our cosmic neighbourhood just by observing earth. It's amazing to see this topic explained so well.
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This was such a ridiculously interesting episode! I didn’t understand half of it, but it was so exciting to learn all these new things.
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0:57 this it the best music I’ve ever heard in a background of an educational YouTube video, and I really don’t know why.
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Ah yes, cosmic horrors beyond our comprehension. Thanks man
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The fact that we as stardust have evolved to figure this stuff out is completely mind boggling
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sir, i have always been so confused by stars. yours was the best explanation till date, thank you
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My mind took a Supernova at point-blank and it was only one billionth of a knowledge point gained from warching Veritasium videos!!!
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The connection between astronomy, historic man, and palaeontology as a whole was absolutely mind opening. It is this reason this channel is one of the best channels on YouTube
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Small addendum regarding the name Supernova that you mention (1:20): Kepler's teacher and mentor, Tycho Brahe, was the first to publish a book concerning a new star (stella nova), namely SN1572 or "Tycho's Supernova", which appeared 32 years earlier (TWO visible supernovae in a lifetime and NONE since!) Brahe's book was "De nova et nullius aevi memoria prius visa stella", ("Concerning the Star, new and never before seen in the life or memory of anyone").
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Brilliantly written, brilliantly produced. You are the perfect educator.
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Great work as always. My nieces and nephews are always asking me space questions and ill answer but also show them these cool animations which really gets the point across.
