Asteroid dust may have triggered massive explosion of life on Earth 466 million years ago

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Makuser United States of America
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Asteroid dust may have triggered massive explosion of life on Earth 466 million years ago

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Post by Makuser »


Nearly half a billion years ago, there was a huge explosion of species development on Earth, causing the biodiversity of animals to increase dramatically -- but the true cause of that event has remained a mystery. In a new paper published on Wednesday in Science Advances, scientists show that the event's onset coincided with the largest documented asteroid breakup in the asteroid belt over the past two billion years. That breakup, which was triggered by a collision with another asteroid or comet, would have spread enormous amounts of dust throughout the solar system. "The blocking effect of this dust could have partly stopped sunlight from reaching the Earth – leading to cooler temperatures," the study's co-author Birger Schmitz, a professor of nuclear physics at Lund University, writes in The Conversation. "We know that this involved the climate changing from being more or less homogeneous to becoming divided into climate zones – from Arctic conditions at the poles to tropical conditions at the equator. The high diversity among invertebrates, including green algae, primitive fish, cephalopods and corals, came as an adaptation to the new climate." You can read the entire report here, at:
https://www.foxnews.com/science/asteroi ... osion-life
Marshall
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helicon United States of America
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Re: Asteroid dust may have triggered massive explosion of life on Earth 466 million years ago

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Very interesting Marshall. Usually these events are viewed as destructive, when in fact in this case it appears to have cooled the earth considerably allowing different species to evolve.
-Michael
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Re: Asteroid dust may have triggered massive explosion of life on Earth 466 million years ago

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Hi Michael. I have long believed in the massive extinction that killed off the dinosaurs may have also decimated lizards and snakes, according to new research.In the past, researchers believed that the K-T extinction, which occurred around 65 million years ago, wiped out dinosaurs, but mostly spared lizards and snakes. But the new findings, published today (Dec. 10) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that about 83 percent of these reptiles went extinct. I always thought that it was the rodent mammals that survived. However, this new report may repute this theory. I wait for nFA to post his response to this. It will either answer the question, or drive us to another vodka and tonic drink before bedtime. You know we all love you nFA.:chores-mop:
Marshall
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
Celestron Comet Catcher 140mm f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian on alt-az mount
Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
Kamakura 7x35 Binoculars and Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars. ZWO ASI 120MC camera.
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