These cosmic explosions are so powerful that they could sterilize all life on Earth — or even vaporize the planet. Luckily, the chances of one happening in our solar system are slim.
Gamma rays are weightless, high-energy packets of electromagnetic radiation — the same stuff that makes up light. However, while visible light can comfortably light up a room, gamma rays can penetrate concrete, and cause serious damage to the human body as they pass through.
Some stars become red giants as energy from a hotter core drives expansion. This will be the fate of our sun. Others, however, are far more massive than anything in our solar system and will create violent implosions upon collapse; the result is a titanic blast called a supernova, and a black hole denser than anything else in the known universe. The collisions and violent mergers of superdense bodies called neutron stars can also lead to such black holes.
Still, even less intense exposure to these rays is indeed dangerous. Just as ultraviolet radiation, or UV rays, make sunscreen a necessity lest one risk skin cancer, gamma rays would also require a form of physical protection. Only instead of SPF 30, one would need, the same material used to shield nuclear reactors. The potent gamma radiation would otherwise easily penetrate the skin and start stripping electrons from the atoms in our bodies.
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