FT235

Is the destruction of mankind written in the stars?


A supernova is among the most dramatic astronomical events imaginable. For a few brief weeks or months, a single star can burn more brightly than an entire galaxy, consuming all its fuel in one brief, cataclysmic explosion. Astronomers have sometimes wondered whether such an event in our vicinity might have serious consequences for life on Earth. The general consensus has been that there is no danger… but now they are not so sure.


A supernova was one of the initial candidates for the cause of the great mass extinction 65 million years ago in which the dinosaurs were wiped out, the so-called K-T boundary event.