[HIGHLIGHTS] Supernova can damage distant planets – "Could trigger a mass extinction"

Researchers have assumed that only planets within a radius of 50 light-years around a supernova are affected by its effects. The study, which was published in The Astrophysical Journal, now shows that danger is still imminent even at a distance of 160 light years.

Until now, researchers have assumed two events around supernova in particular can be fatal for planets in the immediate vicinity: the strong radiation that arrives at the days and months after the explosion, and the energetic particles that arrive several hundred to thousands of years later.