this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
631 points (99.1% liked)

xkcd

8639 readers
60 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
koraro
631
xkcd #2878: Supernova (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/xkcd
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Alt text:

They're a little cagey about exactly where the crossover point lies relative to the likelihood of devastating effects on the planet.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 57 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Wikipedia (Near-Earth Supernova) says that a 25 ly away supernova would wipe out half the ozone layer so that's probably the lower bound for what we want

[–] kurwa 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Geez, how many stars do we have that close to us?

[–] whocares314 30 points 8 months ago (2 children)

None. Space is big, and stars that can potentially supernova are rare. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supernova_candidates

[–] hperrin 49 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Your answer is a little misleading. I think you meant there are several stars that close to us, but none that can go supernova.

[–] whocares314 13 points 8 months ago

That’s fair. It’s also a little misleading because there are other cosmic events that could happen that are both closer to us and potentially further away, and have in the past. I wouldn’t say we are immune from the hazards of space but my comment could have been construed that way.

[–] TheBat 2 points 8 months ago

That's disappointing

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)