Radiation Rain
No Result
View All Result
  • Shop
    • Radiation
    • Emergency Food
    • Hiking Gear
    • Radiation Protection
    • Solar Generators
    • Survival
  • Radiation News
  • Radiation Emergencies
  • Radiation Survival
  • Solar Flares
  • Shop
    • Radiation
    • Emergency Food
    • Hiking Gear
    • Radiation Protection
    • Solar Generators
    • Survival
  • Radiation News
  • Radiation Emergencies
  • Radiation Survival
  • Solar Flares
No Result
View All Result
Radiation Rain
No Result
View All Result
  • Sale!

    1 M EMF Protection Pure Copper Fabric-Blocking RFID Radiation Singal Wifi EMI EMP RF

    $16.01 $10.73
    Select options
  • 1 Set 10W Portable Solar Generator Outdoor Power Mini DC10W Solar Panel 6V-9Ah Lead-acid Battery Charging LED Lighting System

    $96.51 – $123.84
    Select options
  • Sale!

    10pcs 5G ANTI RADIATION PROTECTING STICKER FOR PHONE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD 5G BLOCKER EMF EMP EMR RADIATION PROTECTION Pregnant

    $5.50 – $6.50
    Select options
  • 10Pcs Outdoor Camping Survival Tool Kits SOS Emergency equipment tourism hike EDC Gear 5*45mm

    $14.01
    Select options
  • 110V Charging Portable Solar Power Station FlashFish 40800mAh Solar Generator Battery Charger Outdoor Energy Power Supply 200W

    $462.47
    Select options
  • 12 pieces/set Of Silicone Food Bag Frosted Silicone Food Bag Reusable Frozen Fresh-Keeping Bag Zipper Leak-Proof Top Fruit Bag

    $10.73 – $17.39
    Select options
Home Solar Flares

Chance played a major role in keeping Earth fit for life

enchantedrush@gmail.com by enchantedrush@gmail.com
December 14, 2020
in Solar Flares
0
Chance played a major role in keeping Earth fit for life
0
SHARES
4
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter


Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A study by the University of Southampton gives a new perspective on why our planet has managed to stay habitable for billions of years—concluding it is almost certainly due, at least in part, to luck. The research suggests this may shorten the odds of finding life on so-called ‘twin-Earths’ in the Universe.

READ ALSO

Magnetic waves explain mystery of Sun’s outer layer

Exploring the solar wind with a new view of small sun structures

The research, published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment, involved conducting the first ever simulation of climate evolution on thousands of randomly generated planets.

Geological data demonstrate that Earth’s climate has remained continuously habitable for more than three billion years. However, it has been precariously balanced, with the potential to rapidly deteriorate to deep-frozen or intolerably hot conditions causing planet-wide sterility.

Professor Toby Tyrrell, a specialist in Earth System Science at the University of Southampton, explains: “A continuously stable and habitable climate on Earth is quite puzzling. Our neighbors, Mars and Venus, do not have habitable temperatures, even though Mars once did. Earth not only has a habitable temperature today, but has kept this at all times across three to four billion years—an extraordinary span of geological time.”

Many events can threaten the continuous stability of a planet—asteroid impacts, solar flares and major geological events, such as eruptions of supervolcanoes. Indeed, an asteroid which hit the Earth 66 million years ago caused the extinction of more than 75 percent of all species, killing off the dinosaurs along with many other species.

Previous computer modeling work on Earth habitability has involved modeling a single planet: Earth. But, inspired by discoveries of exoplanets (those outside of our solar system) that reveal that there are billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, a Southampton scientist took a novel approach to investigating a big question: what has led Earth to remain life-sustaining for so long?






To explore this, Professor Tyrrell tapped into the power of the University of Southampton’s Iridis supercomputing facility to run simulations looking at how 100,000 randomly different planets responded to random climate-altering events spread out across three billion years, until they reached a point where they lost their habitability. Each planet was simulated 100 times, with different random events each time.

Having accrued a vast set of results, he then looked to see whether habitability persistence was restricted to just a few planets which were always capable of sustaining life for three billion years, or instead was spread around many different planets, each of which only sometimes stayed habitable for this period.

The results of the simulation were very clear. Most of those planets which remained life-sustaining throughout the three billion year period only had a probability, not a certainty, of staying habitable. Many instances were of planets which usually failed in the simulations and only occasionally remained habitable. Out of a total population of 100,000 planets, nine percent (8,700) were successful at least once—of those, nearly all (about 8,000) were successful fewer than 50 times out of 100 and most (about 4,500) were successful fewer than 10 times out of 100.

The study results suggest chance is a major factor in determining whether planets, such as Earth, can continue to nurture life over billions of years. Professor Tyrrell concludes: “We can now understand that Earth stayed suitable for life for so long due, at least in part, to luck. For instance, if a slightly larger asteroid had hit Earth, or had done so at a different time, then Earth may have lost its habitability altogether.

“To put it another way, if an intelligent observer had been present on the early Earth as life first evolved, and was able to calculate the chances of the planet staying habitable for the next several billion years, the calculation may well have revealed very poor odds.”

Given these seemingly poor odds, the study speculates that elsewhere in the Universe there should be Earth-like planets which had similar initial prospects but which, due to chance events, at one point became too hot or too cold and consequently lost the life upon them. As techniques to investigate exoplanets improve, and what seem at first to be ‘twin Earths’ are discovered and analyzed, it seems likely that most will be found to be uninhabitable.


The solar system follows the galactic standard—but it is a rare breed


More information:
Toby Tyrrell, Chance played a role in determining whether Earth stayed habitable, Communications Earth & Environment (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-020-00057-8

Provided by
University of Southampton


Citation:
Chance played a major role in keeping Earth fit for life (2020, December 14)
retrieved 2 January 2021
from https://phys.org/news/2020-12-chance-major-role-earth-life.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.



Related Posts

The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection
Solar Flares

Magnetic waves explain mystery of Sun’s outer layer

January 22, 2021
The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection
Solar Flares

Exploring the solar wind with a new view of small sun structures

January 20, 2021
The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection
Solar Flares

Solar activity reconstructed over a millennium

January 19, 2021
Image: The sun in 2020
Solar Flares

Image: The sun in 2020

January 7, 2021
The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection
Solar Flares

The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection

December 21, 2020
The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection
Solar Flares

Recently discovered comet seen during 2020 total solar eclipse

December 18, 2020
Next Post
The upside of volatile space weather: Robust stellar flares might not prevent life on exoplanets, could facilitate its detection

Recently discovered comet seen during 2020 total solar eclipse

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About

We bring you the latest News about Radiation

Follow us

Categories

  • Radiation Emergencies
  • Radiation News
  • Radiation Survival
  • Solar Flares

Shop

  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • My account
  • Shop

Recent Posts

  • Skin Cancer – You Need To Be Aware Of The Dangers
  • Dangers of Summer Cycling – Hyperthermia
  • The Use of Radiation Seeds For Treating Prostate Cancer
  • The Importance of Wireless Gas Detectors As Safety Devices
No Result
View All Result
  • Shop
    • Radiation
    • Emergency Food
    • Hiking Gear
    • Radiation Protection
    • Solar Generators
    • Survival
  • Radiation News
  • Radiation Emergencies
  • Radiation Survival
  • Solar Flares