The conference will be held in the hotel.
The conference will be held at the hotel. htin a 100 light years it’s bad news if a supernova happens this close to us the shock wave of the explosion would be so powerful that it would actually compress the interstellar gas in our local bubble creating a shock wave of star formation that would be so powerful that it could strip away the outer layers of planets in the solar system and even our ozone layer this would leave the inner planets like Earth and Mars exposed to the full force of the supernova radiation for weeks and it would be enough to cause a mass extinction event on Earth
Supernovae are the most powerful explosions in the universe, unleashing enough energy to outshine galaxies. We have no real metaphor for their power; if the sun were to magically go supernova, it would feel like you were being hit by the energy of a nuclear explosion every second for weeks. While supernovae are the engines of creation, forging the elements that enable life, they also burn sterile whole regions of galaxies. So, what would happen if one hit Earth?
There are roughly speaking two ways to make a supernova: either the core of a massive star implodes, or (less common) a white dwarf gains mass to the point where it ignites explosive nuclear fusion. The outcome is the same: a supernova explosion.
When we think of an explosion on Earth, we think of something that happens fast and ends. But a supernova is more like a volcanic eruption followed by a tsunami. At first, there’s a colorful ball of hot expanding gas creating a spectacular cloud that will shine for about a month, but then it doesn’t stop. Hot and dangerous gas rushes outwards at speeds of 10,000 kilometers a second through the near vacuum of space, sweeping up the sparse gas of the galaxy. This wall of gas expands for tens of thousands of years and will eventually span up to dozens of light years until it finally cools off and disperses its substance back into the galaxy.
So, what if this star tsunami hits us? Well, the damage depends on how far away it is.
Stage One: Thousands of light years away. Humans have witnessed dozens of supernovae, but all of them were thousands of light years away. They appeared as new stars, some outshining the moon, twinkling for a few weeks and disappearing. Aside from looking very pretty, at this distance they don’t do much to us.
Stage Two: 300 light years away. Things begin to get a bit icky once a supernova occurs around 300 light years away. We can expect one this close to us every few million years - a single star giving the night sky an eerie glow, like Twilight. And while this is far enough away and dim enough to not do harm to us, they can affect the Earth at these distances. It’s like being hit by the last weak waves of the star tsunami, not strong enough to do real damage, but still noticeable. In fact, we know that over the past 10 million years, multiple supernovae have struck Earth from these distances, because we can find radioactive isotopes of iron deep in the rocks and sediments at the bottom of the ocean. Amazingly, these supernovae around the solar system have cleared a 1,000 light year wide pocket of space that’s called the local bubble - they blew away the interstellar gas and dust, creating a lumpy wall of gas that’s now a cradle for star formation.
Stage Three: 150 light years away. Once the supernova happens much closer than 300 light years, we’re approaching the zone where it does real damage. Stars have extremely powerful magnetic fields - when they die, the tsunami of dead star actually retains a lot of this magnetic energy, woven through the shock wave that expands outwards. In this highly magnetized cloud, we get conditions like in a huge particle accelerator that’s accelerating charged particles like protons, nuclei, and electrons to immense speeds. This means we have an expanding cloud that is shooting deadly radiation in all directions, long after the bright light from the initial explosion has faded away. If a supernova happens too close by, waves of these cosmic rays will wash over the solar system for thousands of years. While we’re mostly protected on Earth’s surface by the atmosphere and ozone layer, the influx of extra radiation will still increase cancer and mutation rates - not enough to cause a mass extinction, but it will be noticeable. Spaceflight would become impossible in the solar system, as astronauts wouldn’t survive the waves of radiation for long. We don’t know exactly how bad this would be, but a supernova that is close enough may trap our species on Earth for generations, maybe thousands of years. It only gets worse from here.
Stage Four: Closer than 100 light years. Within a 100 light years, it’s bad news. If a supernova happens this close to us, the shock wave of the explosion would be so powerful that it would actually compress the interstellar gas in