A multinational research team has found evidence of an ice age of life caused by a giant asteroid 466 million years ago.
A famous giant asteroid caused dinosaurs and many earth creatures to become extinct. But before that, another giant did the opposite: causing life to explode across Earth’s oceans. That’s what a team of scientists led by Professor Birger Schmitz (Lund University, Sweden) discovered through research focusing on sediment samples from many places on Earth – rocks that were once ancient seabed of the Ordovician period.
Fossil of a meteorite fragment related to the asteroid impact 466 million years ago – (photo: BIRGER SCHMITZ).
They found the presence of many strange substances, such as elements and isotopes that rarely occur in Earth, helium atoms missing one neutron, indicating it was shot from the sun and ladder in space. Compared with younger meteorite samples from Antarctica, the scientists demonstrated the spatial origin of ancient rock and dust samples interspersed in Earth’s rocks.
The above chemical evidence revealed a terrifying collision 466 million years ago. An asteroid from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has strayed to Earth, crashing into our planet.
It is estimated that this asteroid has a width of up to 150km, so the impact force is extremely large. Like the apocalypse of the dinosaurs, this asteroid also released a large amount of meteorite dust, creating haze that covered the earth, blocking sunlight from reaching the earth, creating an ice age. great ha.
At a time when the earth was still an unspoiled planet, this ice age did not cause disaster, but on the contrary, sparked an explosion of new species across the oceans. Traces of countless strange creatures born in this period have been recorded by paleontologists around the world.
These organisms are mainly planktonic groups, the basis of the ocean food chain, such as coral sponges, starfish, sea urchins… Previously, there were studies that suggested that some of these organisms This creature, especially the sponge, may be the long-standing “ancestor” of many modern species, including… we humans.
The birth of this new batch of organisms was named the Ordovician Biodiversity Event .
An organism was born during the Ordovic Biodiversity Event – (photo: BIRGER SCHMITZ).
The results of this study also led scientists to a bold ambition: to create a fake meteorite dust release, which means that there is no real impact, Earth’s inhabitants are still safe, but a moderate amount of dust. enough will be released into the air as in the ancient collision. This man-made dust cloud could save the world, helping the earth reduce its temperature, offsetting the increase in global temperature caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
However, according to Dr. Philipp Heck (University of Chicago – USA, assistant to the Field Museum in Chicago), a member of the research team, this proposal needs to be considered carefully because just one mistake can cause damage. make a bad thing instead of saving the Earth.