Life on earth will end due to suffocation
Scientists have claimed that life on Earth could end due to suffocation. He said that life will have to be searched for on other planets. Scientists have predicted a dramatic change in Earth’s atmosphere that could return it to conditions before the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) about 2.4 billion years ago. This event, which saw a significant increase in atmospheric oxygen, fundamentally changed our planet’s environment and enabled humans and all living organisms to survive. However, research published in 2021 suggests that this oxygen-rich period may not be a permanent feature of Earth’s history.
The study also indicates that within the next billion years, a rapid deoxygenation event may occur, leading to a methane gas-filled atmosphere similar to that of the Archean Earth. This change will mark the end of oxygen-dependent life, including human civilization, unless we develop the means to leave our planet.
The researchers used complex models of Earth’s biosphere, which took into account the decline in carbon dioxide levels due to the gas’s breakdown due to the Sun’s increasing brightness and increasing heat. According to research reports, with low levels of CO2, photosynthetic organisms such as plants will reduce, resulting in a drastic drop in oxygen production.
Previous predictions suggested that increasing solar radiation would cause Earth’s oceans to evaporate in about 2 billion years, but this new model, based on about 400,000 simulations, shows that oxygen depletion may occur before the loss of surface water. And it will take immediate form and prove to be more fatal to life.
Chris Reinhard, an earth scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, emphasized the seriousness of the projected oxygen decline. Estimates suggest it is a million times lower than current levels, he told New Scientist. Such a drastic reduction would render our planet inhospitable to aerobic organisms, which would spell the end of most life forms currently thriving on Earth.
This research has important implications for the search for extraterrestrial life. As astronomers use increasingly powerful telescopes to search for habitable planets, the findings suggest that oxygen may not be the only biosignature indicating life. The study, part of NASA’s NEXSS (Nexus for Exoplanet System Science) project, suggests that alternative biosignatures should also be considered in the quest to detect life.
Kazumi Ozaki of Toho University in Japan, who collaborated on the study, described the post-deoxygenation atmosphere as having elevated methane levels, low CO2 and no protective ozone layer. In this future scenario, anaerobic life forms will dominate, which will continue life cycles long after the extinction of oxygen-dependent species.
The implications of this research are profound, suggesting that Earth’s oxygen-rich era may last only 20-30 percent of the planet’s total lifetime. As humanity grapples with the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, this glimpse of the distant future serves as a reminder of the constantly changing nature of our planet and the transience of the conditions that support life as we know it.
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