The Ordovician mass extinction occurred on 44.5 billion years ago, 85% of the planet's species were wiped out, and there are many reasons for this.
The research team of NASA and the University of Kansas in the United States said that the Ordovician mass extinction event may be caused by the release of gamma rays from a supernova, which destroyed 50% of the earth's ozone layer in just 10 seconds.
Of course, there are some other theories, but in any case, every supernova explosion that is closer together is a serious challenge for Earth's species.
Betelgeuse is located in the constellation Orion, about 640 to 724 light-years from Earth, and according to scientific observations, this huge star has reached its twilight years, and a supernova event is about to occur, what will be the impact on Earth?
Betelgeuse is so large that if you move it to the solar system, Betelgeuse's periphery is about the same as Jupiter's orbit, and its mass is 16 of the Sun5 to 19 times.
Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion, the tenth brightest star in the whole day, at the beginning of its formation, due to the more material in the nebula, the gravitational pull of the inward collapse is larger, which triggers more nuclear fusion and releases more energy.
Since human observation of Betelgeuse, its star brightness has been within the normal range, with an apparent magnitude of about 00 to 13 but since October 2019, Betelgeuse has started to darken, and by the beginning of 2020 there was only about 18 and so on, after which the brightness rises again in a short period of time.
Scientists believe that Betelgeuse has entered the helium combustion stage, and the life span of the star is related to the size of the mass, in layman's terms, the greater the mass of the star, the more intense the burning, and the shorter the lifespan.
The so-called helium combustion stage is to the effect that the nuclear fusion material inside the star has changed from hydrogen to helium, but according to scientific research, stars with small masses will not have a core collapse because the core temperature is not high enough to "burn" up, and finally it belongs to the thermonuclear ** type of supernova explosion.
When the hydrogen element is almost consumed, the force of outward expansion is temporarily lower than the force of inward collapse, and the force of the massive star is greater than that of the inward collapse, coupled with the high temperature, which is enough for hydrogen to produce helium under nuclear fusion.
When helium is depleted, it initiates the fusion reaction of new elements, such as beryllium-8, carbon-12, oxygen-16, neon-20, magnesium-24, silicon-28, sulfur-32, argon 36, calcium-40, titanium-44, chromium-48, iron-52, nickel-56.
When the elements are depleted and nothing inside the star is "burned", the force of the inward collapse will far exceed the force of outward expansion, causing the star to lose its internal and external equilibrium and continue to collapse inward, even reaching 20% of the speed of light.
After the electrons inside the star are pressed into the nucleus, they combine with protons to form neutrons, and a large number of neutrons continue to converge until a certain critical point is broken.
To discuss this topic, we need to come from two aspects, one is when, and the other is whether the high-energy radiation generated will be "targeted" at the earth?
1.When is Betelgeuse**?
Betelgeuse's age is about 10 million years old, and if it enters the early days of helium combustion at this time, does it mean that it will take at least tens of millions of years for Betelgeuse to "burn" other elements?
The problem is the rate at which the elements inside the star are depleted, assuming that hydrogen is consumed for 10 million years, it does not mean that each of these types of elements will continue to consume for 10 million years.
The elements involved in nuclear fusion inside the star, the further down the order, the faster the consumption, from silicon to iron only takes about 14 days, scientists have calculated that Betelgeuse helium is consumed for about 1 million years, carbon is 1000 years, and can be ignored in the future.
Therefore, scientists speculate that the time of Betelgeuse is about 1 million years later, and what stage of human science and technology will be developed at that time, although we can't guess now, but it should not be bad.
2.When Betelgeuse**, will high-energy radiation come to Earth?
There are about 100 billion 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, and the death and creation of stars is a frequent phenomenon in the universe, just like human beings on Earth, there are people dying and people being born all the time.
Under normal circumstances, the distance between star systems is relatively long, and the high-energy radiation produced by other stars** does not have a great impact on another star system, but as mentioned above, American scientists believe that the Ordovician mass extinction may be caused by supernovas**, so the key to the problem lies in Betelgeuse's axis of rotation.
When Betelgeuse's axis of rotation is aligned with the Earth, the high-energy radiation from the supernova explosion will affect the Earth, most likely causing species extinction, but that will be 1 million years later.
But fortunately, Betelgeuse's axis of rotation and the direction of the solar system are more than 30°, so Betelgeuse's ** in 1 million years will not pose a danger to Earth.
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