According to a recent study, United States scientists estimated how near a neutron star collision would be for all life on Earth to be threatened. The kilonova event is among the most active and explosive in the known universe. Scientists believe this celestial event could represent a significant threat to our planet, owing to the discharge of potentially harmful radiation such as gamma rays, cosmic rays, and x-rays during these cosmic occurrences, as per Space.com.
Team leader and scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Haille Perkins, said, "We discovered that if a neutron star merger occurred within 36 lightyears of Earth, the resulting radiation could cause an extinction-level event."
Cosmic rays may be the most dangerous of all, as per experts.
The explosive collision of ultra-dense neutron stars produces a particle bombardment that would devastate our planet's ozone layer and expose it to ultraviolet light for the following 1,000 years, experts claim. The scientists found cosmic rays may be the most dangerous of all the deadly particles evaluated. They explained that the collision in space would cause an expanding cosmic ray bubble to develop, encompassing everything in its path and unleashing a torrent of very energetic, charged particles on Earth.
Gamma rays are equally terrifying. The collision of gamma rays with the surrounding stardust, or 'interstellar medium,' as per the study, may result in the emission of X-rays, which have a comparable ionising influence on Earth's ozone layer.
No reason to panic, according to experts
However, while the duration of these impacts exceeds that of gamma rays, making them potentially more damaging, the Earth would need to be within around 16 lightyears of the event's epicentre to suffer these consequences, the researchers claim. They also reassured that there is no need to panic as kilonova is an uncommon occurrence.
"There are several other more common events like solar flares, asteroid impacts, and supernova explosions that have a better chance of being harmful," Perkins said.
Ms Perkins' team examined a neutron star merger that occurred in 2017, roughly 130 million lightyears away, resulting in a furious spew of particles 1,300 times the mass of Earth, as per Space.com. At the time, scientists hoped the kilonova could reveal how heavy materials such as platinum, uranium, and gold formed.
