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New research suggests that huge bursts of energy happening thousands of light years from Earth could leave traces on our vegetation, writes Phys.org.
This is a research by Robert Brakenridge of the University of Colorado. The study was released last month and focuses on the impact of supernovae, which are among the most energetic events in the universe. They can release in a few months the same amount of energylike our sun for life.
In his study, Brakenridge writes that a nearby supernova could do this wipe out all life on Earth. However, even the most distant can leave their mark on our planet. They can flood it with harmful radiation and damage our ozone layer. To confirm his hypothesis, Brakenridge decided to study the annual tree rings in hopes of discovering a connection between them and the cases of these extreme cosmic explosions.
His findings suggest that relatively close supernova explosions have been able to occur over the past 40,000 years disturb the Earth’s climate up to four times. His results currently don’t provide an exact answer, but we do get an interesting look at how the universe can affect us.
“Supernovae are extreme events and it turns out they could be reflected in tree rings,” says Brakenridge.
Supernova in a tree trunk
His research is based on a single carbon isotope. It is carbon-14, an isotope found in very small quantities on Earth. Radiocarbon is formed when cosmic rays from space bombard our planet’s atmosphere almost continuously. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and instead of carbon in the compound it may contain radiocarbon.
But trees don’t always absorb the same amount of radiocarbon. Several cases indicate that the concentration of this isotope in trees increased rapidly. This increase came suddenly and for no apparent “terrestrial” cause. However, most scientists have associated this with periods of increased solar activity.
However, Brakenridge thinks this increase in radiocarbon is due to supernovae. He made a list of supernovae that had occurred in the past 40,000 years and found it the next eight left high radiocarbon traces on trees. However, four of the eight observations were extremely convincing. However, Brakenridge’s research is far from conclusive, but according to Brakenridge it deserves further observation.
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