11-17-2016, 12:22 PM
(11-17-2016, 08:34 AM)Bear Wrote: A GRB is a planet-sterilizing event in the long term, but at even moderate interstellar range it wouldn't be lethal in a single generation. It would take a while for the mutation load to build up faster than repair or selection could handle, for weak links in the biosphere to go extinct depriving others of food, etc. Eventually even the most shielded things would succumb, but not due to radiation; If they're shielded, they'd die out due to the crashing biosphere around them. The amount of radiation we're talking about at surface level is not compatible with life in the long run, but needing more than 10m of rock for shielding would imply the surface getting flash-fried.
A bit of googling seems to indicate that the nearest potential GRB is about 7500-8000ly away. And that if it went bang, it could mess with our ozone layer, but not cook the planet or the like (if the beam is actually aimed at us).
Applying this back to the OA universe, this distance puts it just inside the Periphery. So some kind of expedition could be there or on its way to modify the star to remove the threat (possibly by removing the star entirely).
As far as dealing with a GRB actually hitting a planet (since in Y11k, there are many more planets than just Earth to deal with), OA tech could effectively undo or prevent the negative effects quite rapidly, essentially healing the entire biosphere in a matter of decades (or faster if transapients were involved).
Todd