Sharp Rise in Cosmic Ray Irradiation of Organisms on Earth Caused by a Nearby SN Shockwave Passage
The work considers the modelling of nearby supernova (SN) effects on Earth’s biosphere via cosmic rays (CRs) accelerated by shockwaves.
The rise of the radiation background on Earth resulted from the external irradiation by CR high-energy particles and internal radiation in organisms by the decay of cosmogenic 14C is evaluated. We have taken into account that the CR flux near Earth goes up steeply when the shockwave crosses the Solar System, while in previous works the CR transport was considered as purely diffusive.
Our simulations demonstrate a high rise of the external ionization of the environments at Earth’s surface by atmospheric cascade particles that penetrate the first 70-100 m of water depth. Also, the cosmogenic 14C decay is able to irradiate the entire biosphere and deep ocean organisms.
We analyzed the probable increase in mutation rate and estimated the distance between Earth and an SN, where the lethal effects of irradiation are possible. Our simulations demonstrate that for SN energy of around 1051 erg the lethal distance could be ∼ 18 pc.
A.A. Shchepkin, G.I. Vasilyev, V.M. Ostryakov, A.K. Pavlov
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph); Space Physics (physics.space-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2409.00288 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2409.00288v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.00288
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Journal reference: Astrobiology, 24:6, p. 604-612 (2024)
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2023.0126
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Submission history
From: Alexander Shchepkin
[v1] Fri, 30 Aug 2024 22:54:49 UTC (557 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.00288
Astrobiology
