1000000 of years ago , the Earth ’s oceans were dominated by one of the braggart and most dire marauder to have ever existed : the Megalodon . An 18 - meter - longsighted ( 59 pes ) giant , itchowed down on sperm cell whales , could outswim Jaws , and oncefaced down Jason Statham gird with torpedoes . It would take something monumental to kill off this wolf .
And yet , killed off it was . 2.6 million years ago , the megalodon , along withmore than a thirdof the large marine creatures that lived alongside it , was wiped out by a mass extinction case .
Ever since researcher uncovered the first grounds of this biological catastrophe , they ’ve been hear to image out what cause it . Perhaps it wasclimate changethat killed the Meg , says one hypothesis , or maybe , in a disturbing metaphor for our own future , its own greeddestroyed the ecosystemthat was hold back it alive .
But a new paper print last calendar month in the journalAstrobiologyoffers an astronomical explanation : a collection of conk star , going supernova just 150 light - years away from Earth .
Normally on Earth , theconstant barrageof cosmic rays force out at us by distant detonate starsaren’t a big job . But the researcher believe the amount of energy released by this chain of supernovae would have been enough to break through the atmosphere , shower the prehistorical megafauna withlethal amountsof radiation .
“ We have the Local house of cards in the interstellar culture medium , ” leading author Adrian Mellott say in astatement . “ We ’re right on its edge … When we do calculations , they ’re based on the estimate that one supernova that run low off , and its vim sweeps by Earth , and it ’s over . But with the Local house of cards , the cosmic rays kind of bounce off the sides , and the cosmic - ray bathtub would last 10,000 to 100,000 years . This elbow room , you could imagine a whole series of these things feed in more and more cosmic irradiation into the Local Bubble and giving us cosmic rays for millions of years . ”
“ About one - fifth of our radiation therapy dose comes by negative muon [ particles that are created by cosmic beam of light clash with the Earth ’s atmosphere ] , ” explain Millett . “ Only a modest fraction of them will interact in any elbow room , but when the number is so large and their energy so high , you get increased mutations and cancer – these would be the main biological impression . ”
And for a savage like megalodon , the effects would be extra deadly .
“ We approximate the cancer rate would go up about 50 percent for something the sizing of a human – and the bigger you are , the speculative it is , ” he added . “ For an elephant or a whale , the radiation Venus’s curse goes way up . ”
Although the idea that a cosmic explosion one and a one-half quadrillion klick aside could trigger the deaths of millions of animals on Earth might seem implausible , research last yearby the same team put the “ kill zone ” for a supernova at just one - third that distance . At 150 light - class from Earth , the cosmic ray from supernovaewouldn’t causesomething like the Great Dying , which sawup to 90 pct of all lifewiped off the boldness of the satellite – but an experimental extinction outcome like the one that need the megalodon would be executable , pronounce Melott .
“ There really has n’t been any good explanation for the marine megafaunal extinction , ” he explained . “ This could be one . It ’s this paradigm change – we know something happened and when it happened , so for the first time we can really dig in and look for thing in a definite elbow room . We now can get really definite about what the effects of radiation would be in a way that was n’t possible before . ”
