if the nearest star to us went supernova what effect would it have on earth&how long would it take to reach us

Answer 1

A supernova within 10 parsecs would be a very bad thing for life on Earth The first effect would be a lethal dose of gamma rays for any living thing on the side of the Earth near the supernova. Then it would brighten up over several days, not as bright as the Sun but substantially brighter than the full moon. A barrage of high-energy radiation would follow.

Luckily, the nearest star that is massive enough to supernova is more than 200 parsecs away. Eta Carina is a pretty good candidate for the next supernova, and it's more than a two kiloparsec away, a nice safe distance.

Answer 2

The nearest star is Proxima Centauri (4.2 light years)--and that's how long the wave front of eergy would take to reachus.

Proxima Centauri isn't a star that can go supernova (not a maybe; its physically impossible). Nor are any other stars anywhere near that close.

And that's good--because the radiation from a supernova would wipe out all life on earth. Some of the marine life forms in the deep oceans might survivve to restart the evolutionary cycle. But that's all.

Answer 3

Gamma rays from a supernova could set off a chemical reaction interior the top ecosystem, changing molecular nitrogen into nitrogen oxides, depleting the ozone layer sufficient to divulge the exterior to volatile photograph voltaic and cosmic radiation. This has been proposed via fact the reason for the top Ordovician extinction (443.7 million years in the past), which resulted interior the loss of life of almost 60% of the oceanic existence in the international. kind Ia supernovae are concept to be doubtlessly the main deadly in the event that they ensue close sufficient to the Earth. via fact kind Ia supernovae get up from dim, person-friendly white dwarf stars, that's possibly that a supernova that should impression the Earth will ensue unpredictably and ensue in a action picture star equipment that's no longer properly studied. One concept skill that a kind Ia supernova could must be closer than 1000 parsecs (3300 easy-years) to electrify the Earth. the closest usual candidate is IK Pegasi. present day estimates are awaiting that a kind II supernova could must be closer than 8 parsecs (26 easy-years) to wreck a million/2 of the Earth's ozone layer.

Answer 4

The nearest star is ~4 light years away and if it went super nova the light would reach us in 4 years. It would be about a tenth as bright as the sun for a month or so. The stuff or mass would get here in a few centuries.

Answer 5

The nearest star Proxima centauri, is I think 4.2 Light years away. If it went into supernova then we would not observe any change for about 4.2 years. However, for a star to go into supernova then it would have to be a star about 10 times bigger than our sun and as proxima centauri is a very small and very dim star then it is destined to eventually fade into a black dwarf and vanish from our sight!

The effect it would have on earth is that it would fire out a dust which would be like an element soup. It is because of stars that heavier elements than hydrogen are in our universe. There would be in effect like a solar wind of these elements and many more subatomic particles such as antineutrinos. As the earth has a magnetic field which 'guards' us from this kind of wind then we would probably be ok because If you compared the solar wind from the sun at the distance we are away from it, to the solar wind from the supernova of proxima centauri at the distance away from that, the explosion would be negligable. seek out the inverse square law.

Answer 6

The nearest star is about 4.3 light years away, so the gamma radiation would reach us in 4.3 years and probably kill us. Lucky for us that star is not the kind that go supernova.

Answer 7

The sun, yes, but it has about 5billion years to go before it goes thru any major changes. There are a few other stars close enough to effect earth, but probably not in our lifetime.

Answer 8

well i will tell you this the sun i the closest star and it doesn't take long for its rays to reach us and it doesn't get brighter those stars out there look small because i is many light years away light years is the amount of light that travels toward us every year

Answer 9

The nearest star to us would be the sun, the effect would be devistating and it would take about 8 minutes....

... or so.

Answer 10

the nearest star to us is the sun!

The easy answer is we would die!

But we probably wouldn't realise what was happening so don't panic.