How could events triggered by a supernova accelerate the death of a main sequence star?
My story revolves around a star going supernova. The 'Earth' in this story is about 100 light-years or more away (a safe distance, but not too far away). I need this supernova to somehow accelerate the death of this 'Earth''s star such that it will slowly become uninhabitable in the next 1 million years.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/17005. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
They're fine.
Here, I discussed the effects of a supernova on life on Earth. Note that a supernova would have to be within about ten parsecs (~33 light-years) to have harmful effects on life on Earth. Furthermore, the effects would be indirect, destroying the ozone layer (partially or in full) rather than incinerating the planet. At 100 light-years, we're fine.
On to your actual question. The lifetime,
So you need to add mass to the "Sun", and you need to add mass that can be used for nuclear fusion. I can get you specific data for the density of a supernova remnant, which you could use to figure out to amount of material in a given area near the "Sun", but I think it's safe to say that there will not be a significant amount of material useful for fusion anywhere near the "Sun".
0 comment threads