{"id":162546,"date":"2023-04-21T02:22:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T07:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/chandra-x-ray-observatory-identifies-new-stellar-danger-to-planets"},"modified":"2023-04-21T02:22:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T07:22:47","slug":"chandra-x-ray-observatory-identifies-new-stellar-danger-to-planets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/chandra-x-ray-observatory-identifies-new-stellar-danger-to-planets","title":{"rendered":"Chandra X-ray Observatory identifies new stellar danger to planets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/chandra-x-ray-observatory-identifies-new-stellar-danger-to-planets2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Astronomers using data from NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a new threat to life on planets like Earth: a phase during which intense X-rays from exploded stars can affect planets over 100 light-years away. This result, as outlined in our latest press release, has implication for the study of exoplanets and their habitability.<\/p>\n<p>This newly found threat comes from a supernova\u2019s blast wave striking dense gas surrounding the exploded star, as depicted in the upper right of our artist\u2019s impression. When this impact occurs it can produce a large dose of X-rays that reaches an Earth-like planet (shown in the lower left, illuminated by its host star out of view to the right) months to years after the explosion and may last for decades. Such intense exposure may trigger an extinction event on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>A new study reporting this threat is based on X-ray observations of 31 <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/supernovae\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">supernovae<\/a> and their aftermath\u2014mostly from NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory, Swift and NuSTAR missions, and ESA\u2019s XMM-Newton\u2014show that planets can be subjected to lethal doses of <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/radiation\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">radiation<\/a> located as much as about 160 light-years away. Four of the supernovae in the study (SN 1979C, SN 1987A, SN 2010jl, and SN 1994I) are shown in composite images containing Chandra data in the supplemental image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Astronomers using data from NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have identified a new threat to life on planets like Earth: a phase during which intense X-rays from exploded stars can affect planets over 100 light-years away. This result, as outlined in our latest press release, has implication for the study of exoplanets and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology","category-existential-risks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}