horizon
Currently, complex life thrives on our planet due to its oxygen supply. But Earth’s atmosphere is not always like today, scientists predict that it will return to oxygen rich in methane and low oxygen in the future.
Breathing is relaxed. This may be another billion years or so. However, according to research published in 2021, this change will happen soon.
This shift will bring the planet back to what it was about what was called the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) about 2.4 billion years ago.
“For years, the lifespan of the Earth’s biosphere has been discussed based on scientific knowledge about the sun and global carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle,” said Kazumi Ozaki, an environmental scientist at Toho University in Japan, published the study.
“One of the inferences of this theoretical framework is the continuous decline in the atmosphere2 Levels of geological time scales and global warming. ”
The researchers say that oxygen in the atmosphere is unlikely to become a permanent feature of the generally habitable world, which has implications for our efforts to further discover signs of life in the universe.
“This model predicts that there is sufficient atmosphere in the atmosphere2 “Sharply dropping to Earth’s level is likely to trigger before the start of wet greenhouse conditions in the Earth’s climate system and before the loss of large amounts of surface water in the atmosphere,” the team explained in the paper.
By then, this will be the end of humans and most other forms of life that rely on oxygen to spend the day, so we hope we figure out how to leave Earth at some point in the next billion years.
Humans and most other life forms rely on oxygen. (drazen_/canva)
To conclude, the researchers used a detailed model of the Earth’s biosphere, considering changes in the brightness of the sun and the corresponding decline in carbon dioxide levels, as the gas decomposes by increasing heat.
Less carbon dioxide means fewer photosynthesis organisms (such as plants) can lead to less oxygen.
Scientists have previously predicted that the increase in radiation from the sun would wipe the seawater on the surface of our planet within about 2 billion years, but additional models (based on averages of less than 400,000 simulations) say reducing oxygen will kill life first.
“The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme,” Georgia Tech geoscientist Chris Reinhard told him. New Scientist. “We are talking about a million times less oxygen than today.”
What makes the research particularly relevant to the day is that we look for habitable planets outside of the solar system.
As increasingly powerful telescopes are about to go online, scientists hope to know what they should look for in the data they collect.
In addition to oxygen, we may need to look for other biosignature opportunities, researchers say. Their research is part of the NASA Nexss (Exoplanetary Systems Science) project, which is examining the habitability of planets outside of ourselves.
According to calculations performed by Ozaki and Reinhard, the habitable history of the Earth that is rich in oxygen may eventually last to 20 to 30% of the entire Earth’s lifespan – which will last long after we disappear.
“The atmosphere after large deoxygenation is characterized by increased methane and low levels of CO2no ozone layer. ” Ozaki said.
“The Earth’s system may be a world of anaerobic life forms.”
The study was published in Natural Earth Science.
An earlier version of this article was published in March 2021.
