Evidence for Nearby Supernova Explosions

Details Evidence for Nearby Supernova Explosions Evidence for Nearby Supernova Explosions

2002-01-02

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0201018v2

Phys.Rev.Lett. 88 (2002) 081101

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

4 pages, 2 figures. Replaced by final version to appear in Physical Review Letters

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.081101

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 for such an event were lacking. Here we show that the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association, a group of young stars currently located at~130 parsecs from the Sun, has generated 20 SN explosions during the last 11 Myr, some of them probably as close as 40 pc to our planet. We find that the deposition on Earth of 60Fe atoms produced by these explosions can explain the recent measurements of an excess of this isotope in deep ocean crust samples. We propose that ~2 Myr ago, one of the SNe exploded close enough to Earth to seriously damage the ozone layer, provoking or contributing to the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary marine extinction.

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