People have witnessed supernovae for millennia, but what threat do they pose to life on Earth? This video is sponsored by Brilliant. You can get started for free, or the first 200 people to sign up via https://brilliant.org/veritasium get 20% off a yearly subscription.
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A massive thanks to Prof. Hans-Thomas Janka for helping us with the physics of supernovae and GRBs. A massive thanks to Prof. Brian Thomas for all of his help with the terrestrial effects of supernovae and GRBs. This video would not have been possible without them. Also thanks to Dr. Luke Barnes for his initial help with the literature search.
Hydrogen bomb vs Supernova fact was taken from this great article by xkcd/Randall Munroe – https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/ (based on the calculation by Andrew Karam, 2002)
Cosmic bubble footage from
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/1000-light-year-wide-bubble-surrounding-earth-source-all-nearby-young-stars
Neutrino driven SN explosion simulations from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/808/2/L42
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References:
Melott, A. et al. (2019). Hypothesis: Muon radiation dose and marine megafaunal extinction at the End-Pliocene supernova. Astrobiology, 19(6), 825-830. – https://ve42.co/Melott1
Thomas, B. C. et al. (2016). Terrestrial effects of nearby supernovae in the early Pleistocene. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 826(1), L3 – https://ve42.co/Thomas1
Melott, A. L., & Thomas, B. C. (2019). From cosmic explosions to terrestrial fires?. The Journal of Geology, 127(4), 475-481. – https://ve42.co/Melott2
Fields, B. et al. (2019). Near-Earth supernova explosions: Evidence, implications, and opportunities. arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.04589. – https://ve42.co/Fields1
Thomas, B. C., Atri, D., & Melott, A. L. (2021). Gamma-ray bursts: not so much deadlier than we thought. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500(2), 1970-1973. – https://ve42.co/Thomas2
Melott, A. et al. (2004). Did a gamma-ray burst initiate the late Ordovician mass extinction?. International Journal of Astrobiology, 3(1), 55-61. – https://ve42.co/Melott3
Firestone, R. B. (2014). Observation of 23 supernovae that exploded less than 300 pc from Earth during the past 300 kyr. The Astrophysical Journal, 789(1), 29. – https://ve42.co/firestone1
Janka, H. T. (2017). Neutrino emission from supernovae. arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.08713. – https://ve42.co/Janka1
Janka, H. T., & Hillebrandt, W. (1989). Neutrino emission from type II supernovae-an analysis of the spectra. Astronomy and astrophysics, 224, 49-56. – https://ve42.co/Janka2
Janka, H. T. (2017). Neutrino-driven explosions. arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.08825. – https://ve42.co/Janka3
Karam, P. A. (2002). Gamma and neutrino radiation dose from gamma ray bursts and nearby supernovae. Health physics, 82(4), 491-499. – https://ve42.co/Karam1
Melott, A. L., Thomas, et al.. (2017). A supernova at 50 pc: effects on the Earth's atmosphere and biota. The Astrophysical Journal, 840(2), 105. – https://ve42.co/Melott4
Ludwig, P., et al. (2016). Time-resolved 2-million-year-old supernova activity discovered in Earth's microfossil record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(33), 9232-9237. – https://ve42.co/Ludwig1
Gritschneder, et al. (2011). The supernova triggered formation and enrichment of our solar system. The Astrophysical Journal, 745(1), 22. – https://ve42.co/Gritschneder1
Motizuki, Y., Takahashi, et al. (2009). An Antarctic ice core recording both supernovae and solar cycles. arXiv preprint arXiv:0902.3446. – https://ve42.co/Motizuki
Zucker, C. et al. (2022). Star formation near the Sun is driven by expansion of the Local Bubble. Nature, 601(7893), 334-337. – https://ve42.co/Zucker1
Hirata, K. et al.(1987). Observation of a neutrino burst from the supernova SN1987A. Physical Review Letters, 58(14), 1490. – https://ve42.co/Hirata1
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Written by Petr Lebedev & Derek Muller
Edited by Fabio Albertelli
Animation by Fabio Albertelli, Jakub Misiek, Alex Drakoulis, Ivy Tello, Mike Radjabov, and Charlie Davies
Filmed by Derek Muller
Additional Research by Kovi Rose & Katie Barnshaw
Video/photos supplied by NASA, ESA, Pond5, and Getty Images
Music from Epidemic Sound & Jonny Hyman
Produced by Derek Muller, Petr Lebedev, and Emily Zhang
cool, new ways stars can kill us. honestly, we figured out our own mass extinction some time ago. supernova not needed!
@TonyP-g8h Says:
Hopefully, it would get all the "smart" people...
@KitsuNarima Says:
Wow, so many lies in one video ...
@trappedinmaaya Says:
❤
@Kaledarkwind6151 Says:
Both fascinating and terrifying all at the same time.
@MeteorologistAidenOlbrych206 Says:
Well, you see black holes in a black holes to form you need to compress matter approximately 100,000 times it’s size and when a star goes supernova, the gravity compresses the matter with such unimaginable pressure that it explodes out into a black hole
@marksmadhousemetaphysicalm2938 Says:
Another filter against extraterrestrial life
@TRex1997-f6t Says:
Unknowingly Revised Modern physics
@premiummreels Says:
just close your eyes
@antonbianco1169 Says:
No built in word salad like most videos nowadays. Good work and very interesting. I subscribed which is rare.
@popcornboi1059 Says:
4:34 iron within iron without
@DenofLore Says:
“ what if a star explodes close to earth?” then in the words of my ancestors, we be fucked.
@lulu.r.b Says:
If we are so smart to know what happen inside a star we should be going in the moon for weekend.
They show us best theory they have not reality.
@KingLarbear Says:
You are awesome
@Lyra0966 Says:
So you're saying it could happen quite soon? 😱
@jamesmorrison1451 Says:
Wow , finally , now it makes sense, other explanations left me w/questions, yay finally get it.
@Hell-Spawns Says:
When you realize life is on a... Well life or death mission to get away from the sun, and we've spent half that time forming and evolving.
@thegreatestintellect Says:
Veritasium: What would happen if a star exploded near the Earth?
Me: We all die!
@MEDFAZT Says:
If the sun ☀️ explodes we would be blasted out of our Orbit and start being pulled by Gravity to the nearest Star 💫 would this transition be violent or Not , I don’t know 🤷 crazy deep thought, and very Scary 😱 but if our sun died we would be pulled by Gravity to the nearest SUN ☀️ and ORBIT it , I want to circle a red giant or a white dwarf or a blue star a pulsar star ⭐️ the universe is massive, we are on a giant space craft called earth , earth because we live on land , NASA lies to humans about moon landings , we are on a prison planet 🌎 it supports human life , it is our life support system, if we can tolerate a different method of breathing, and tolerate the mass radiation, we are dependent on several basic factors , we need oxygen and constant temperature, we need to eat sleep 🛌 and think about this , we do a full rotation every 24 hours 12 ours of day and 12 hours of night , but if we left earth’s protective atmosphere it would cease have a nighttime you would also burn with Radiation ☢️ gamma rays protons would enter and pass through your body on a nuclear level, imagine living in a continuous X-RAY environment imagine living in a CT machine. No human can survive this , and the the moon surface is highly toxic no water no trees no shade or clouds, on the sun side of the moon it’s around 300-600 degrees and it’s constantly baking you
@IIlllIlIllIIlllII Says:
It will, and has, micronova... and soon.
@christopherleubner6633 Says:
The neutrinos at that density will also flip protons to neutrons and make some of the other elements more likely to react. In addition to that the violent collapse would create a promt supercritical condition in the upper layers lighter to silicon. The result is a star becomes a giant thermonuclear bomb that uses gravity implosion and neutrinos as the trigger impulse. 😮
@orynoss Says:
I jump over the shockwave
@RjQuisto Says:
I cant hear it's to loud in here
@limzhenglelol Says:
Ozone layer will disappear
@kurd55 Says:
Let’s all pray for a Gamma Ray Burst!
@chazzquasar9466 Says:
Great vid.
@nathancornwell1455 Says:
I'm disappointed that I won't be alive when the earth is destroyed by a supernova
@CaptainForest1 Says:
Now we need a video on how to make hydrogen paste
@CaptainForest1 Says:
Great job !
best educational / most potentially useful YouTube video I’ve watched
@mrloop1530 Says:
0:19 Do not try this at home
@CeeTee-12345 Says:
Here's the short version, you won't want this to happen... LOL
@AditsyaArvind Says:
Well there goes another species because of space phenomena
@Bunnygers-o8d Says:
Fire
@JKJohnson-rk8ic Says:
Nothing significant happens unless the star that explodes is ours.
@cxanadu Says:
the humble neutrino
@astrafaan Says:
Don't need the sensationalism for supernovas to be explained tyvm.
@3way270 Says:
We'll probably have a belt like Saturn from all the debris orbiting our parehelian. But knowing the folks on this planet here they a turn that into fuel or building something crazy with it by taking the broken rocks and studying it for scientific research lol 😆
@быджусловјартел Says:
The "renewables" nut jobs would be out in full force, offering tax breaks on new panels to capture the energy from the supernova.
@SBiswas-j3g6k Says:
How wonderful a star's life will be depends on how big it is. The bigger it is, the faster it will run out of fuel and die. That's why the deaths of big stars are more impressive than the deaths of little stars like our Sun.
A supernova is what happens when a big star dies in an explosion. People thought that a supernova could only happen once in the life of a big star.. Astronomers have recently discovered a star that has exploded twice, suggesting it may have died twice. On July 2 a group of astronomers published a report in Nature Astronomy that revealed a supernova approximately 300 years old in a completely new way. This image reveals that some dead stars can still be seen with the double explosion...
@scottlanghorst1483 Says:
I got to Witness a Star Supernova.
It was Red at first, so I thought it was the Planet Mars.
It turned from Red to White and it Exploded then Shrank, leaving Darkness in its Place!
@StrangeWorldArchives Says:
The way Veritasium explains such massive cosmic events is always mind-blowing! 🤯 The visual storytelling and script structure in this video are absolutely top-tier. I got chills at [06:52] when you highlighted that the humble neutrino—a particle with almost no mass—is responsible for the largest explosions in the universe. It’s crazy to think that something so small triggers a supernova! 🌌 The balance between astrophysics and engaging narrative is perfectly executed. Has your team ever considered diving deeper into the mystery of hypernovae or specific Gamma-Ray Bursts in a standalone video? Keep up the incredible work! 🚀🔥
@TechDissectOfficial Says:
3 years later, this discussion is even more relevant. The irony that a near-massless particle..."
The irony that a near-massless particle (the neutrino) is the primary engine behind a supernova's immense kinetic blast is one of physics' greatest jokes. But here’s the real cosmological paradox for the engineers here: If 99% of a supernova's energy escapes as neutrinos before the photons even break the surface, and our multi-billion dollar optical telescopes (like JWST) only capture the delayed electromagnetic 'aftermath', how much of the early universe's explosive history is our optics simply blind to? Are we building $10 billion eyes to look at the wrong spectrum?
@DJMcGuitarTea Says:
Sorry but that'd obviously bollocks.. wouldn't it's power completely eradicate anything else? Causing perpetual daylight and blinding everything with eyes?
@GuyIncognito-d9d Says:
just wear sunglasses
@Zadok-ev7ih Says:
YO THANK YOU BRO THIS IS SPACE PHYSICS IGCSE EXTENDED REVISIONM RIGHT HERE
@YvesSimard-o1g Says:
Which Neutrino Observatory did you work in? I spent a lot of time at the Sudbury Observatory SNO and was there through most of its construction.
@lavanyam9633 Says:
17:53 so a supernova made a big mistake giving us life 😅
@jackfranconi Says:
this is my favorite veritasium video.
@Rudeus3-y5i Says:
0:37 still not as bright as discord light
@hansruiter-jo4ke Says:
As usual perfectely clear and understandable explained. 👍👍
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