Supernova

Hard x-ray pulses or increased cosmic radiation originating in nearby supernova explosions may be capable of temporarily removing most of the earth's atmospheric ozone cover even when direct radiation effects at the earth's surface are negligible. Consequently, terrestrial life may be subject to relatively huge solar ultraviolet fluxes every few hundred million years.

@article{doi101126science18441411079,
    author = "Ruderman, M A",
    title = "Possible consequences of nearby supernova explosions for atmospheric ozone and terrestrial life.",
    year = "1974",
    journal = "Science (New York, N.Y.)",
    abstract = "Hard x-ray pulses or increased cosmic radiation originating in nearby supernova explosions may be capable of temporarily removing most of the earth's atmospheric ozone cover even when direct radiation effects at the earth's surface are negligible. Consequently, terrestrial life may be subject to relatively huge solar ultraviolet fluxes every few hundred million years.",
    url = "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17736193/",
    doi = "10.1126/science.184.4141.1079",
    pmid = "17736193"
}

Hard x-ray pulses or increased cosmic radiation originating in nearby supernova explosions may be capable of temporarily removing most of the earth's atmospheric ozone cover even when direct radiation effects at the earth's surface are negligible. Consequently, terrestrial life may be subject to relatively huge solar ultraviolet fluxes every few hundred million years.

@article{ruderman1974possible,
    author = "Ruderman, M. A.",
    title = "Possible Consequences of Nearby Supernova Explosions for Atmospheric Ozone and Terrestrial Life",
    year = "1974",
    journal = "Science",
    abstract = "Hard x-ray pulses or increased cosmic radiation originating in nearby supernova explosions may be capable of temporarily removing most of the earth's atmospheric ozone cover even when direct radiation effects at the earth's surface are negligible. Consequently, terrestrial life may be subject to relatively huge solar ultraviolet fluxes every few hundred million years.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1126/science.184.4141.1079",
    doi = "10.1126/science.184.4141.1079",
    number = "4141",
    pages = "1079-1081",
    volume = "184"
}

@misc{ruderman1974possible1,
    author = "Ruderman, M. A",
    title = "Possible consequences of nearby supernova explosions for atmospheric ozone and terrestrial life",
    year = "1974",
    howpublished = "Science, v. 184, p. 1079-1081",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Ruderman, M. A., 1974, Possible consequences of nearby supernova explosions for atmospheric ozone and terrestrial life: Science, v. 184, p. 1079-1081.}"
}

This paper reviews the current knowledge of the depletion of stratospheric ozone due to the injection of oxides of nitrogen from thermonuclear explosions in the atmosphere, discussing the theoretical calculations, the ground‐based observations of global ozone after the 1961–1962 multimegaton test series, and the satellite observations of local effects following an individual French thermonuclear explosion in 1970. There is general agreement on the approximate NO production per megaton yield and on the subsequent ozone depletion expected to be associated with the various nuclear tests. The latter depletion, as calculated principally by Chang and Johnston, extending earlier work of Foley and Ruderman, is small—typically of the order of several percent during a reasonable observation interval—and lies within the probable error of available ozone measurements. Thus while there is no real disagreement between prediction and observations and no reason to doubt the validity of the predictions of ozone depletion, existing atmospheric data do not provide a statistically significant demonstration of the catalytic destruction of ozone by oxides of nitrogen.

@article{bauer1975effect,
    author = "Bauer, Ernest and Gilmore, Forrest R.",
    title = "Effect of atmospheric nuclear explosions on total ozone",
    year = "1975",
    journal = "Reviews of Geophysics",
    abstract = "This paper reviews the current knowledge of the depletion of stratospheric ozone due to the injection of oxides of nitrogen from thermonuclear explosions in the atmosphere, discussing the theoretical calculations, the ground‐based observations of global ozone after the 1961–1962 multimegaton test series, and the satellite observations of local effects following an individual French thermonuclear explosion in 1970. There is general agreement on the approximate NO production per megaton yield and on the subsequent ozone depletion expected to be associated with the various nuclear tests. The latter depletion, as calculated principally by Chang and Johnston, extending earlier work of Foley and Ruderman, is small—typically of the order of several percent during a reasonable observation interval—and lies within the probable error of available ozone measurements. Thus while there is no real disagreement between prediction and observations and no reason to doubt the validity of the predictions of ozone depletion, existing atmospheric data do not provide a statistically significant demonstration of the catalytic destruction of ozone by oxides of nitrogen.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1029/rg013i004p00451",
    doi = "10.1029/rg013i004p00451",
    number = "4",
    pages = "451-458",
    volume = "13"
}

@article{whitten1976effect,
    author = "WHITTEN, R. C. and CUZZI, J. and BORUCKI, W. J. and WOLFE, J. H.",
    title = "Effect of nearby supernova explosions on atmospheric ozone",
    year = "1976",
    journal = "Nature",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1038/263398a0",
    doi = "10.1038/263398a0",
    number = "5576",
    pages = "398-400",
    volume = "263"
}

@inproceedings{hoflich2001aspherical,
    author = "Höflich, P.",
    title = "Aspherical supernova explosions: Hydrodynamics, radiation transport \& observational consequences",
    year = "2001",
    booktitle = "AIP Conference Proceedings",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1419593",
    doi = "10.1063/1.1419593",
    pages = "459-471",
    volume = "586"
}

@article{benítez2002evidence,
    author = "Benítez, Narciso and Maíz-Apellániz, Jesús and Canelles, Matilde",
    title = "Evidence for Nearby Supernova Explosions",
    year = "2002",
    journal = "Physical Review Letters",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.88.081101",
    doi = "10.1103/physrevlett.88.081101",
    number = "8",
    volume = "88"
}

@book{branch2017supernova,
    author = "Branch, David and Wheeler, J. Craig",
    title = "Supernova Explosions",
    year = "2017",
    booktitle = "Astronomy and Astrophysics Library",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55054-0",
    doi = "10.1007/978-3-662-55054-0"
}

@incollection{chang2019nuclear,
    author = "Chang, Julius S. and Wuebbles, Donald J.",
    title = "Nuclear Explosions and Atmospheric Ozone",
    year = "2019",
    booktitle = "The Environmental Effects of Nuclear War",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429310560-4",
    doi = "10.4324/9780429310560-4",
    pages = "79-95"
}

The widespread detection of 60 Fe in geological and lunar archives provides compelling evidence for recent nearby supernova explosions within ∼100 pc at 3 and 7 Myr ago. The blasts from these explosions had a profound effect on the heliosphere. We perform new calculations to study the compression of the heliosphere due to a supernova blast. Assuming a steady but non-isotropic solar wind, we explore a range of properties appropriate for supernova distances inspired by recent 60 Fe data, and for a 20 pc supernova proposed to account for mass extinctions at the end-Devonian period. We examine the locations of the termination shock decelerating the solar wind and the heliopause that marks the boundary between the solar wind and supernova material. Pressure balance scaling holds, consistent with studies of other astrospheres. Solar wind anisotropy does not have an appreciable effect on shock geometry. We find that supernova explosions at 50 pc (95 pc) lead to heliopause locations at 16 au (23 au) when the forward shock arrives. Thus, the outer solar system was directly exposed to the blast, but the inner planets—including Earth—were not. This finding reaffirms that the delivery of supernova material to Earth is not from the blast plasma itself, but likely is from supernova dust grains. After the arrival of the forward shock, the weakening supernova blast will lead to a gradual rebound of the heliosphere, taking ∼few × 100 kyr to expand beyond 100 au. Prospects for future work are discussed.

@article{miller2022heliospheric,
    author = "Miller, Jesse A. and Fields, Brian D.",
    title = "Heliospheric Compression Due to Recent Nearby Supernova Explosions",
    year = "2022",
    journal = "The Astrophysical Journal",
    abstract = "The widespread detection of 60 Fe in geological and lunar archives provides compelling evidence for recent nearby supernova explosions within ∼100 pc at 3 and 7 Myr ago. The blasts from these explosions had a profound effect on the heliosphere. We perform new calculations to study the compression of the heliosphere due to a supernova blast. Assuming a steady but non-isotropic solar wind, we explore a range of properties appropriate for supernova distances inspired by recent 60 Fe data, and for a 20 pc supernova proposed to account for mass extinctions at the end-Devonian period. We examine the locations of the termination shock decelerating the solar wind and the heliopause that marks the boundary between the solar wind and supernova material. Pressure balance scaling holds, consistent with studies of other astrospheres. Solar wind anisotropy does not have an appreciable effect on shock geometry. We find that supernova explosions at 50 pc (95 pc) lead to heliopause locations at 16 au (23 au) when the forward shock arrives. Thus, the outer solar system was directly exposed to the blast, but the inner planets—including Earth—were not. This finding reaffirms that the delivery of supernova material to Earth is not from the blast plasma itself, but likely is from supernova dust grains. After the arrival of the forward shock, the weakening supernova blast will lead to a gradual rebound of the heliosphere, taking ∼few × 100 kyr to expand beyond 100 au. Prospects for future work are discussed.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac77f1",
    doi = "10.3847/1538-4357/ac77f1",
    number = "1",
    pages = "32",
    volume = "934"
}