What If A Star Exploded Close To Earth?

What if a star exploded right next to us? It would be like a giant firecracker going off in our neighborhood, but way bigger!

Imagine you're playing with fireworks on a quiet night. Suddenly, one of them goes boom and lights up the whole sky. That’s kind of what happens when a star explodes, it’s called a supernova.

If the explosion was close enough, we’d feel it like a big shake, like when your friend jumps on your bed. The light from the explosion would be so bright, it might even wake you up in the middle of the night!

Right now, our Sun is about 93 million miles away, that’s pretty far! But if a star exploded just 100 times closer than that, we’d really notice. It would be like having a firecracker explode in your backyard instead of across the town.

Even though it would be loud and bright, it wouldn’t hurt us, unless the star was really close! Then it might feel like being hit with a big wave of warmth, like standing too close to a campfire.