Earth May Have Been Hit By a Gamma-Ray Burst In 775 AD 157
The Bad Astronomer writes "Studies of carbon-14 in Japanese trees and beryllium-10 in Antarctic ice indicate the Earth was hit by a big radiation blast in 775 AD. Although very rare, occurring only once every million years or so, the most likely culprit is a gamma-ray burst, a cosmic explosion accompanying the birth of a black hole. While a big solar flare is still in the running, a GRB from merging neutron stars produces the ratio of carbon and beryllium observed, and also can explain why no bright explosion was seen at the time, and no supernova remnant is seen now."
Re:His tree data is wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
Effects on Humans and animals (Score:5, Interesting)
Neither of the articles discuss what might have happened to living things at the time. Could some people have had radiation sickness for example? Could this have caused mutations?
Re:The wikipedia page has a curious entry (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/774%E2%80%93775_radiation_burst [wikipedia.org]
The part about witness accounts to a red cross like image in the sky, meaning someone may have actually seen the event...
I'd take that with a pinch of salt. I've been reading Tom Holland's "Millennium" and it mentions that one of the Holy Roman emperors (an Otto) was heading down to Jerusalem to hand his crown over to JC when he came down for the second coming, when the army he was with saw a dragon in the sky. They figured this was a portent of bad things, and weren't surprised when Otto died a few days later.
I wouldn't take that anecdote as evidence for dragons though.
Re:Doubtful (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a bit of a backward way to approach it.
Normally, when we make observations that don't line up with our current understanding (e.g. "Where did all this carbon-14 come from?") we look for explanations. The most likely known sources of carbon-14 spike are GRB's and solar flares. Discounting those because the overall event is unlikely, in spite of the evidence, is what scientist dub "stupid".