About 466 million years ago in space, a thud in a way that in the next million years during the upheaval of the earth’s natural diversity, concluded in an international study. The ancient ice age as a result of has been proven already in the past, but now researchers believe they found out why.
the Science Advances (switch to another service) -a study published in according to a large asteroid collided with another chunk of Jupiter and between Mars and in space. Accident born of the cosmic waste clouded the Earth’s atmosphere and climate cooling, to varying degrees, but for a very long time.
the Earth’s atmosphere end up with all the time space material, but it is little compared with pölinään, which is coming from the earth’s own volcanoes and deserts. The atmosphere is also a sea of dried salt.
But when a diameter of 150-mile giant break in space, the dust spread tumbled around the solar system, and Earth did their part. Törmääjän diameter, scientists estimate about 20 miles. One big collisions in the solar system not counting what happened to two billion last year.
– Usually the Country comes from space material of about 40 000 tonnes per year. Just imagine the situation, when the number of a thousand or even ten thousand times, said the american Field museum (you move to another service) curator, university of Chicago astrokemia assistant professor Philipp Heck .
the crash of the memories coming to the Ground still
Heck illustrate the figures of a semi-trailer load of. When the space became the material normally would fill a thousand trailers in a year, an asteroid hit the atmosphere hundred ten million semi-carts every year.
It takes at least two million years, and it hasn’t ended completely yet. According to scientists, this year almost a third of the meteorites of which the Earth fell, there came from that giant crash.
the Climate cooling was also a sea of rain down dust iron content. It’s got sea microbes to flourish, which in turn binds the air more carbon dioxide. Climate cooling promoted yet it, too, that the dead microbes sank to the depths and took to tie his coal with him.
an Ancient sea bed deposit evidence
the results of This study are the first evidence that hundreds of millions of years of space dust cold reduced the Country’s climate, at times dramatically, said in a research article, the lead author, the Swedish Lund university nuclear physics professor Birger Schmitz.
according to Her research circles, in recent decades begun to understand that the earth’s life evolution also depends on the space of events.
the research material as was space dust, residues and tiny meteorites made of stone, which were once the ocean floor. Today they are dry rocks in Southern Sweden Kinnekullen limestone quarries and the river in Russia near st. Petersburg.
kinnekullen has in recent decades been found in 130 composition the right kind of meteorite at just the right time. One meteorite, the only different, is probably a relic of the big asteroid collision of another celestial, surmises Schmitz Conversation magazine (you move to another service) in his article.
This small meteorite is the memory of the asteroid, which caused a long ice age. Above is ocean life in the pearl boat, i.e. nautilo its fossils. John Weinstein / the Field museum the helium can reveal the cosmic origin of the
the Sea water influence what kind of stone the bottom not arise. Period the seas were previously lower, suggesting that some of the water was polar ice and sea ice. The timing coincides perfectly coincide with the results of the study, said Schmitz.
the Ancient sea bottom from the stone they were looking for chemical elements that are the rare Earth, and isotopes, which are space characters. Especially the helium was obtained decisive evidence, Schmitz says.
the discovery of the extraterrestrial origin of the trail was reached the acid treatment, which dissolved the stone, but left the remaining space party and let the scientists do their chemical analysis.
Change slow to give evolution time
As the dust floating in the atmosphere, at least two million years, life had time to adapt to new conditions and even benefit from them. The different circumstances of developed species, which just they were suitable, the scientists say.
the Sea, which had been merely a tropical or subtropical, birth zones, the equatorial tropics to the poles into the icy waters and in ice.
Life on the planet was focused on at that time just in the ocean. Among them, the diversity of life doubled or even tripled.
the reason you have caused the scientific community to the head of the effort ten years. Hot earth cold, it is accepted by all scientists, but why it happened?
Schmitz proposed decades ago to explain the asteroid break-up of the Country near, but at the time, he guessed, that the country to hit the big tracks. The hypothesis is not good enough for others, since the craters were not found. The dust theory to expect the scientific community reactions.
These Kinnekullen rocks were once an ancient seabed. Philipp Heck / Field MuseumTomustako solution to climate change?
Slowly crept up to become the change caused no species of high stress, but rapid climate change is a disaster, said Heck.
a meteorite that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, was quite a different story. So is today’s climate change.
Heck, it would be tempting to think that the current climate warming should be solved by emulating hundreds of millions of years ago the powdered rain.
Its like the idea is already flashing: asteroid heave of gravity of a stable point between Earth and the Sun and dust hiertämistä asteroid from the tail, i.e. to cool the Earth.
geoinsinööri might not want to inspire such a thing too much, Heck warned. If something goes plan wrong, the earth’s situation can change even for the worse, he said.
Schmitz agrees: there is so far no other way to fight against climate change than carbon dioxide emissions. Ultimately, it is the only way to protect also the dizzying biodiversity of growth, which happened to 466 million years ago, he said.
Fixed at 10.20: Swedish lime stone area is Kinnekulle, not Killekulle
Subscribe Yle newsletters!
Get Overeating the best content straight to your inbox!
Proceed to order
