[minnesota_bound]

In its 4.5 billion year history, Earth has had to run the gauntlet. Numerous catastrophes have imperiled the planet, from plastic bags, to gas powered cars, to nuclear power plants. Yet life persists.

[MtnClimber]

Our sun and planets oscillate back and forth through the densest part of the galactic plane as we spin around the galaxy. Sort of like a horse on a merry go round. The solar system passes through the dense center of the galactic plane about once every 30 million years which corresponds to the ages of the largest impact craters on earth and also mass extinction events as shown on the graph. We seem to have just gotten through the galactic plane with no major impacts, but the timing of this supernova would have been roughly when the sun and earth were passing through the center of the galactic plane.

Graph from https://astronomy.com/magazine/2019/07/dark-matters--shadowy-effect--on-earth

[MtnClimber]

Another graph comparing impacts and mass extinction timelines.