Distant Universe Explosion Can Wipe Out Life On Earth

It’s scary sufficient for these collisions to happen many galaxies away. Nonetheless, the research centered on the implications of such an explosion occurring inside proximity to Earth-like planets. The research attracts from the instance of GW170817, a kilonova detected in 2017 some 130 million light-years away. Using GW170817, researchers launched into a mission to find out, mainly (to make use of unscientific language), how shut is too shut. 

Haille Perkins of the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign led the crew, which utilized superior laptop simulations to find out the minimal protected distance between Earth and a possible kilonova explosion. Spoiler alert: their findings learn like a sci-fi catastrophe film.