What Supernova Distance Would Trigger Mass Extinction?

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The deaths of massive stars results in one of the most beautiful and violent events in the universe: the supernova. They are so luminous we can see them here on Earth and historical records show that we can even see them into the day. But supernovas release deadly and violent radiation that could destroy our atmosphere. So how far away do these supernova have to be for humanity to be safe? And when will the next supernova occur

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Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
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[DanielSolis]

"Supernova Kill Zone" is a great album name.

[oldsesalt]

Between 10 and 100, 000 years. That's when the cable guy said when he would show up.

[taghanrigh]

I always love seeing the creative ways Matt finishes off with "Space Time" every episode!

[jacoblashley]

Even though it’s incredibly unlikely, I can’t help but hope we get lucky and get to see Betelgeuse go supernova within our lifetimes. Would just be so cool

[bertberw]

Matt is BY FAR my most favorite speaker. I could listen to this man for hours and I would never get tired, he's the coolest

[joestrat]

The universe is so violent it's a miracle we're here at all.

[joaobarros]

I loved the fact that Matt just knew everyone was thinking how far betelgeuse is and just answered it without a thought!

[ErikSchlyter]

Neat how the Supernova in the intro animation seems to be stuck in a geostationary orbit in the middle of the sky while all the other stars keep scrolling in the background.

[erinkarp]

I love when astronomy and paleontology connect

[codycopeland]

It never ceases to boggle the mind that type 2 supernova are caused by the humble neutrino. A particle that interacts so weekly with regular matter.

[mojoneko]

I for one have no complaint's about living in a boring "Goldilocks zone" of the universe. Humanity has enough on it's plate to deal with already. Thanks for the video.

[pinetreegang]

Could you do a video on everything about light, like how it carries momentum despite being massless, and how it has polarization

[CarlaPowers-dzfn]

I recently found Spacetime and binge watched all the episodes over the last few months. Thanks for such an amazing show Spacetime team! I look forward to watching new episodes as they come out.

[chaerodactyl]

coming from a neuroscience undergrad, I see supernovae as action potentials in the neural net of the cosmic web. they're catalysts for information aggregation and dispersal, on scales of time and space that we can never truly comprehend

[KOtto-kw]

Spacetime is the best youtube channel. Hopefully they can diversify their revenue streams enough so that they can keep making content and weather the youtube storms.

[OpenMicRejects]

TLDW? Summary: If you say Betelgeuse 3 times a massive star will explode in about 50, 000 years.

[LesterWayneDobos]

Great shirt! And awesome production as always. I was looking at Spica other night, powerful star 1000x times more luminous than our sun if I remember correctly. Antares and Arcturus are awesome stars. Antares appeared deep orange, and Arcturus slightly brighter reddish orange was shining brilliantly just observing such powerful energetic suns at those distances keeps me awakened. Vega is a bright one much closer blue star and with totally different physical properties. 👍

[ALessandrone]

Your video is much easier to follow for a non native english speaker like me than your old ones were, i hope i can watch the other ones to the full again in the future because they are super interesting

[theanonymousseeker]

I like the "game over" shirt with the extinction video!