From: Edmund Grech (edmund@arclightentertainment.co.uk)
Date: Thu May 09 2002 - 03:49:02 MDT
Using the latest statistics and calculations, he argues that a supermassive star collapsing at the end of its lifetime would form a black hole and send out a beam of destructive radiation and particles that would sterilise any planet in its path. The odds are that any planet in our galaxy would be affected about once every one hundred million years. "It is a certainty; the timescales are comparable to mass extinctions seen in Earth's geological record," Dr Dar told BBC News Online.
I saw this program on the search for the source of mysterious gamma ray bursts and I'm highly sceptical of its conclusions. I don't believe life could recover on the face of a planet bathed in the intense Gamma rays emmitted in the scenario suggested, it would completely wipe away the amosphere leaving the planet's surface open to the vacuum of space.
Edmund
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