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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A resident’s guide to avoiding lethal blasts from the Galaxy

Astronomers map out the most benign environments for life in the Milky Way over the past 13 billion years.
Illustration of a rocky landscape strewn with animal skeletons and dead plants.

A burst of space radiation might have caused the mass extinction (artist’s impression) at the end of the Ordovician period some 445 million years ago. Credit: Richard Jones/Science Photo Library

The Milky Way is a dangerous place, full of exploding stars and bursts of γ-rays that could strip off a planet’s protective atmosphere and irradiate any life on the surface. An analysis shows that the Galactic neighbourhood safest from these cosmic killers has shifted over time, moving from the Galaxy’s outskirts towards its centre.

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Nature 591, 349 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00620-z

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