Question: When scientists say a supernova impact will ethier destroy life on earth or Enhance it what do they mean?
When they say " The impact will either vaporize all life on earth or help us reach a new level of existence" what do they mean. Will we turn into a different form?
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I have not had the pleasure of reading about such a star, however, if I was to take a guess at what they mean, I would suggest that their taking about the energy that will brought by this wave of energy sent out by the supernova. Now obviously because of the distance this star must be it will take thousands of years to reach us, so I wouldn't worry about us being here to witness it. but lets look at this situation... now if this energy was to be large enough (also powerful enough) were taking about this energy knocking out our otter stratosphere, which of course makes us more vulnerably to the suns radiation. so in that term we would properly all feel sharp peaks in temperatures not to mention being espoused to large amounts of UV light... not a great thing for us. now when they take about this energy enhancing our existent, well there making this conclusion completely on theory, this form of energy could bring some new form of energy we could use or some material within the blast. its completely theoretical.
"When they say 'The impact will either vaporize all life on earth or help us reach a new level of existence' what do they mean. "
Who is "they"? I can assure you that no legitimate scientist has ever made such a statement, assuming that you are quoting the statement accurately.
Most supernovae pose no danger to the Earth. Only a few like star WR104 actually pose a risk. A gamma ray burst from a star within our galaxy aimed towards Earth would destroy most living things but some organisms might survive.
It is thought that over 400 million years ago Earth was hit by a gamma ray burst that extinguished most organisms (Ordovician extinction). The hardiest organisms did survive and evolve, but only because so much of the competition had been killed off, not due to some magic rays that raised their vibes or other new age mambo jumbo. Gamma rays are DEATH rays.
"Impacts that vaporize" usually refer to asteroid impacts not supernovae.
I'm not sure what source you heard that from, but it might be something sensationalist, i.e. popular rather than actually something scientists have said. But, there is definitely some truth behind it. A supernova going off close to us (up to 100 light-years, depending on the size of the supernova) would be very bad news for us, likely a major extinction event. The good news though is that there are no stars big enough to go supernova which are close enough to hurt us. (Trivia item: the Sun is too small to go supernova and will eventually become a red giant and then a white dwarf.)
Now the bit about enhancing life on Earth also has a solid basis, but may not really apply the way it sounds. The universe began as mostly hydrogen, with some helium and a little lithium. The next several biggest atoms (carbon, oxygen, etc.) are produced by stars burning their nuclear fuel. However, really big stars are able to start fusin iron (or was it *making* iron? I forget). The trouble is that *that* reaction is endothermic--it takes more energy to do it than the reaction puts out, and that's like putting water on a fire. So the star's core is no longer putting out enough energy to balance the pull of the star's gravity, and its outer layers collapse onto the core. The star compresses to a point where the weak nuclear force (which is much stronger than gravity but much shorter-range) bounces everything away from each other, and the star explodes. (Really Big Stars have enough gravity to overcome the weak nuclear force, and become neutron stars or black holes.)
In the brief moment before the explosion, lots of heavier elements are produced due to the extreme heat and compression. So all the elements in the universe heavier than iron are produced in supernovas. Most of ours came from a supernova that occurred in this part of space around 8 billion years ago, scientists think, if I remember right. However, we would receive very few minerals from other supernovas farther away.
I don't think any scientists said our sun exploding would Enhance anything, in fact, for certain, everything would be destroyed, and it won't be an enhancement, it will be the final end of the Earth, though the Earth's lifespan is about 10 to 15 billion years give or take, which is practically forever.
Nothing lasts forever except the Earth and Sky, and even that goes when the sun exhausts its nuclear fuel and expands into a Red Giant. engulfing the Earth. Even stars die.
That's why there's Rock n Roll.
A supernova can't create any kind of an impact on Earth.
The gamma rays of a supernova could affect life on Earth by causing increased mutation rates among the plants, animals, insects, and humans.
If the supernova was close enough that gamma radiation could cause increased cancer rates and massive die-offs, or could simply wipe out life from the high radiation levels.
"I was reading about a star which will explode soon quite far from earth" - there is no way for any reputable scientist to predict when a star will explode. Your quote sounds like you were reading some crackpot website or an article written by a journalist for sensationalism instead of education.