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Stellar astrophysics

Supernovae in the neighbourhood

Nature volume 532, pages 40–41 (2016)Cite this article

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Detailed measurements of radioisotopes in deep-sea deposits, plus modelling of how they reached Earth, indicate that many supernovae have occurred near enough to have potentially influenced evolution. See Letters p.69 & p.73

For more than half a century, astronomers have speculated that supernovae have occurred close enough to Earth to affect the planet, possibly contributing to mass extinctions or climate change. In this issue, two studies of isotopes produced by supernovae reveal events thought to have happened a few million years ago: Wallner et al.1 (page 69) report measurements of marine deposits that contain isotopes produced outside the Solar System, whereas Breitschwerdt et al.2 (page 73) model the transport of iron-60 and use this to calculate the explosion times and sites of the likely sources. It is now possible to ask key questions with some precision; for example, could these supernovae have had substantial effects on Earth's climate and organisms — and perhaps even a role in human evolution?

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Figure 1: Simulations of natural fireworks on a grand scale.

Zentrum Astron. Astrophys., Tu Berlin, Michael Schulreich

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  1. Adrian L. Melott is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA.,

    Adrian L. Melott

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  1. Adrian L. Melott
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Correspondence to Adrian L. Melott.

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Melott, A. Supernovae in the neighbourhood. Nature 532, 40–41 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/532040a

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