The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events
<p>Much attention has been given in the literature to the effects of astrophysical events on human and land-based life. However, little has been discussed on the resilience of life itself. Here we instead explore the statistics of events that completely sterilise an Earth-like planet with plan...
| Príomhchruthaitheoirí: | , , |
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| Formáid: | Journal article |
| Teanga: | English |
| Foilsithe / Cruthaithe: |
Springer Nature
2017
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| _version_ | 1826295279073099776 |
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| author | Sloan, D Alves Batista, R Loeb, A |
| author_facet | Sloan, D Alves Batista, R Loeb, A |
| author_sort | Sloan, D |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>Much attention has been given in the literature to the effects of astrophysical events on human and land-based life. However, little has been discussed on the resilience of life itself. Here we instead explore the statistics of events that completely sterilise an Earth-like planet with planet radii in the range 0.5-1.5R ⊕ and temperatures of &Tilde;300 K, eradicating all forms of life. We consider the relative likelihood of complete global sterilisation events from three astrophysical sources - supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, large asteroid impacts, and passing-by stars. To assess such probabilities we consider what cataclysmic event could lead to the annihilation of not just human life, but also extremophiles, through the boiling of all water in Earth&apos;s oceans. Surprisingly we find that although human life is somewhat fragile to nearby events, the resilience of Ecdysozoa such as Milnesium tardigradum renders global sterilisation an unlikely event.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:58:35Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:c3b88a72-afa5-42fa-a0f9-02f6bdf1e01c |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:58:35Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Springer Nature |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:c3b88a72-afa5-42fa-a0f9-02f6bdf1e01c2022-03-27T06:18:33ZThe Resilience of Life to Astrophysical EventsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:c3b88a72-afa5-42fa-a0f9-02f6bdf1e01cEnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordSpringer Nature2017Sloan, DAlves Batista, RLoeb, A<p>Much attention has been given in the literature to the effects of astrophysical events on human and land-based life. However, little has been discussed on the resilience of life itself. Here we instead explore the statistics of events that completely sterilise an Earth-like planet with planet radii in the range 0.5-1.5R ⊕ and temperatures of &Tilde;300 K, eradicating all forms of life. We consider the relative likelihood of complete global sterilisation events from three astrophysical sources - supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, large asteroid impacts, and passing-by stars. To assess such probabilities we consider what cataclysmic event could lead to the annihilation of not just human life, but also extremophiles, through the boiling of all water in Earth&apos;s oceans. Surprisingly we find that although human life is somewhat fragile to nearby events, the resilience of Ecdysozoa such as Milnesium tardigradum renders global sterilisation an unlikely event.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Sloan, D Alves Batista, R Loeb, A The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events |
| title | The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events |
| title_full | The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events |
| title_fullStr | The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events |
| title_short | The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events |
| title_sort | resilience of life to astrophysical events |
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