# Existential Threats **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existential-threats/932232 **Category:** Great Debates **Created:** [February 5, 2021, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existential-threats/932232 "2021-02-05T01:51:39Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 17
### Author: ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy) #### Post date: [February 5, 2021, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existential-threats/932232/17 "2021-02-05T19:14:44Z")
Here’s @Chronos thoughts on point from a few years ago: > [@How far out before some other star is brighter than the Sun?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-out-before-some-other-star-is-brighter-than-the-sun/641873/76): > > OK, yeah, that was about what my intuition was telling me. I just wasn’t seeing a seam in some of those. And LSLGuy, I know that it’s popular to talk about a GRB flash-sterilizing the entire planet, but it can’t happen. Gamma ray bursts have a duration of at most a few seconds, and they can’t penetrate through an entire planet. So you could flash-sterilize half of the planet (or at least, half of the land area-- The deep oceans would also be protected), but the other half would be (initiall… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existential-threats/932232)._