Is THIS how the world will end? Scientists warn a rare type of space explosion could eradicate life on Earth for ‘thousands of years’

From asteroids to alien destruction, Hollywood disaster films have envisioned virtually every possibility for how the world could end.

But while some of these apocalyptic scenarios may seem a bit far-fetched, it turns out there is a much more sinister threat from space that actually has its roots in science.

Watch out, the kilonova.

This rare and mysterious type of cosmic explosion has the potential to wipe out life on Earth for “thousands of years,” a new study warns.

Although not as violent as a supernova, a kilonova is formed when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole collide and merge, creating an explosion of gamma rays that lasts only a few seconds.

“We found that if a merger of neutron stars occurred within about 36 light-years of Earth, the resulting radiation could cause an extinction-level event,” Haille Perkins, a scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told me. Space.com.

First, it’s important to point out that the risk of such an explosion occurring within that distance is very low: the nearest known neutron stars are more than 400 light-years from our planet.

But the reason it could wipe out humanity, scientists say, is that the type of radiation caused by gamma rays contains enough energy to strip electrons from atoms in a process called ionization.

Once the rays reach us, they can destroy the Earth’s ozone layer and expose us to it lethal doses of ultraviolet radiation from the sun over thousands of years.

However, the explosion would have to occur within 36 light years of our planet for the gamma rays to reach that far.

“The specific distance of safety and most dangerous part is uncertain because many of the effects depend on properties such as the viewing angle to the event, the energy of the explosion, the mass of the ejected material,” Perkins added .

“With the combination of parameters we select, it appears that the cosmic rays will be the most threatening.”

The reason kilonovas are so intriguing is because they are so rare and fast, making them difficult to study.

Discovery: Only this week, researchers from the University of Warwick revealed that they had been able to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze a kilonova for the first time

Breakthrough: This allowed them to study the heavy elements produced by the explosion, including confirmation that kilonovas do indeed create Tellurium – which until now was hypothesized but never proven

In fact, just this week, researchers from the University of Warwick revealed that they had been able to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze a kilonova for the first time.

This allowed them to study the heavy elements produced by the explosion, including confirmation that kilonovae do indeed create Tellurium – which until now had been hypothesized but never proven.

The new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, meanwhile, was based on another neutron star merger about 130 million light-years away, the only kilonova ever seen in electromagnetic radiation and heard in gravitational waves.

In addition to the risk of stripping our planet of its atmosphere, the experts found that beams of gamma rays from neutron star mergers had the potential to destroy everything in their path up to 297 light-years away.

However, this would require a ‘direct hit’ from a jet aircraft, meaning this particular threat is even less likely than gradually eating away at the Earth’s atmosphere.

A final risk associated with kilonovas is another domino effect caused by the gamma rays.

As they move through space, they collide with the gas and dust around stars, which in turn produces powerful X-rays called X-ray afterglow.

Such radiation lasts longer than gamma ray emissions, the researchers behind the new study said, and also has the potential to damage Earth’s ozone layer.

The good news, however, is that to pose a threat, such an explosion would have to occur even closer to our planet than the 36 light-year distance for gamma rays – within 16.3 light-years to be precise.

Overall, the researchers say, solar flares, asteroid impacts and supernova explosions all have a “greater chance of being harmful” to Earth than kilonovas.

“Neutron star mergers are extremely rare, but quite powerful, and this, combined with the relatively small lethality, means that an extinction caused by binary neutron star mergers should not be a concern of people on Earth,” says Perkins.

The new research has been published in the preprint database arXiv.