Take a deep breath and enjoy the moment, because it won’t take too long.
Researchers from Japan and the USA have modeled how our planet’s atmosphere will change in light of various biological, climatic and geological processes.
Deoxygenation will occur as a result of increased energy flow from the Sun, increased surface temperatures and decreased photosynthesis.
According to research, the extreme drop in oxygen levels in the atmosphere will destroy most of life on Earth within a billion years.
They discovered that in about a billion years deoxygenating would return the atmosphere to an unholy, methane-rich composition. This reminds us of the early Earth.
They added that this fate would occur before the so-called humid greenhouse conditions came, in which water would irreversibly leak from the planet’s atmosphere.
The findings show that atmospheric oxygen is not a permanent part of habitable planets, but özgü implications for our search for life on other worlds.
2.4 billion years ago, Earth’s atmosphere was rich in methane, ammonia, water vapor, and noble gas neon, but lacked free oxygen.
This was introduced in a chapter that geologists call the Great Oxygenation Event, where cyanobacteria living in the oceans began to produce a significant amount of oxygen through photosynthesis, thereby radically changing the atmosphere.
This flow of oxygen özgü been credited for paving the way for supporting multicellular life on a large scale, but it also came at a cost. The death of many anaerobic bacteria is thought to be the first mass extinction of the Earth.
The new findings suggest that in Earth’s future, the atmosphere could turn the other way, possibly returning the earth to anaerobic microorganisms.
Oxygenation of the atmosphere is often seen as an indicator of the Earth’s existing biosphere, plants, and photosynthetic activity. Therefore, logic continues, we must seek similar oxygenated worlds in our search for extraterrestrial life.
However, the findings show that determination of atmospheric oxygen on Earth is only possible for about two-tenths of our planet’s lifespan.
The researchers argue that if this is true for other planets, we may need to adjust our search for life elsewhere in the universe to seek additional bio-signatures that are indicative of life going on outside of a planet’s oxygen-rich period.
All of the study’s findings have been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Compiled by: Feyza ÇETİNKOL
Source: dailymail
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