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CrimsonEnigma t1_je5lxrb wrote

Reply to comment by holdmyhanddummy in NASA Missions study what may be a 1-In-10,000-Year Gamma-ray Burst, the most powerful class of explosions in the universe. On Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022, a pulse of intense radiation swept through the solar system so exceptional that astronomers quickly dubbed it the BOAT – the brightest of all time. by ICumCoffee

Er…no, not really.

This was about 1.9 billion light years from Earth. The closest GRB ever observed was about 130 million light years from Earth. For a GRB to pose any sort of threat to life on Earth, it would need to be about 8,000 light years from Earth, and even at that range, we wouldn’t “all be dead” (though there’d be a significant increase in things like cancer rates for the next decade or two due to atmospheric damage).

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The_Bald t1_je5nbkq wrote

Read 'Supernova Era' if anyone wants to read a sci-fi book about this.

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scully360 t1_je5onpy wrote

Thanks for this recommendation! Definitely going to check this book out!

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Own_Explorer_6952 t1_je8tj24 wrote

Does that mean we have this increase risk of cancer now even though it was far away ?

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CrimsonEnigma t1_je8ucn8 wrote

No. It needs to be about 8,000 light years away (or less) to start affecting the atmosphere. It would be that damage that would increase cancer risk.

Think if the ozone layer hole kept expanding globally, instead of shrinking like it’s doing now.

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