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Could an exploding star have been responsible for the death of the dinosaurs? This idea has become popular again as an explanation for the disappearance of the dinosaurs. An exploding star can blast material enormous distances into space. If this material reached ....

Middle of Essay
.... neutrinos) escape into space. After the star becomes a very small sphere, it explodes like a giant nuclear bomb and becomes a billion times as bright as our own sun. All kinds of matter and radiation are blasted into space. This matter and radiation travels through space at nearly the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) Now, if one of these supernovae were to occur within about 130 light years of Earth, some scientists feel that life on earth would be drastically affected. Since a light year is the distance light travels in one year, 130 light years is about 760,000,000,000,000 (760 quadrillion miles!). So, suppose a supernova ....