Space
Thinking planet: Earth knows how to regulate the global climate itself
Scientists have proven that our planet has geological mechanisms that protect its climate from catastrophic events. In other words, the Earth seems to be able to think.
The Earth has gone through many turbulent times: our planet has had periods of global volcanism, epochs of glaciation, sharp increases and decreases in solar radiation fluxes. And yet, for the last 3.8 billion years, life has continued to evolve on our planet.
Scientists suspected that the Earth has some kind of “fuse” that keeps the climate in a habitable range. But until recently, researchers could not prove its existence.
What is this “tool” and how it works, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found out. They confirmed that the planet has a so-called “stabilizing feedback” mechanism.
This mechanism has been working for hundreds of thousands of years, slowly but surely pushing the Earth’s climate away from the edge of the abyss, in which life can no longer appear again.
Scientists believe this feedback is based on a geological phenomenon called silicate weathering. This is a slow but constant process involving a series of chemical reactions that take place in silicate rocks. They “pull” carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, “burying” it in sedimentary rocks on the ocean floor.
Scientists have long noted the important role of silicate weathering in regulating the Earth’s carbon cycle.
This mechanism may be the geologically constant force that keeps the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a level acceptable for the existence of life. As a consequence, global temperatures are “under control” of Mother Earth.
Let us clarify that this idea has been around for many years, but so far there has been no direct evidence that such a feedback operates continuously over millions of years.
Now, MIT researchers have applied mathematical analysis to uncover patterns in paleoclimate data over the past 66 million years.
The research team has been searching the dataset for some recurring phenomena that would keep global temperatures within a habitable range all this long.
So scientists discovered that a constant pattern really exists. The temperature on Earth can fluctuate for some time, critically rising or falling, but then inevitably stabilizes. As if someone is looking after the balance (scientists are not inclined to believe in the supernatural, attributing everything to natural processes).
True, the process of temperature stabilization is very slow: it takes hundreds of thousands of years. This duration coincides with how long, according to researchers, the weathering of silicates lasts.
This is the first work in which evidence supports the existence of such a stabilizing feedback.
The results obtained by MIT scientists may explain how the Earth remained habitable despite the fact that its geological past is filled with dramatic climatic events, many of which could lead to the apocalypse.
“On the one hand, this is good, because now we know that today’s global warming will be neutralized thanks to this stabilizing feedback,” says co-author of the work, graduate student Konstantin Arnscheidt. “But, on the other hand, this will take hundreds of thousands of years, and our decisions today’s problems are needed now.”
The study was published in Science Advances.
According to NASA, a rogue, hyper-speed object, which is over
27,306 times the size of Earth, is hurtling so fast through our galaxy
that it might break free of the Milky Way.
Scientists say they have determined that the mysterious object was
cruising at a breakneck one million miles per hour when they spotted it
more than 400 light years from Earth. One light-year is equal to six
trillion miles.
Could this latest find be connected to the fake alien invasion that has long been in the pipeline?
The Mail Online reorts: While experts have not determined what the newfound celestial body is, they speculated it is a ‘brown dwarf,’ a star which is larger than a planet but lacks the mass to sustain long-term nuclear fusion in its core like Earth’s sun.
If the object confirmed as a brown dwarf, it would be first-ever to
be documented in a chaotic, hyper-speed orbit capable of breaking free
from our home galaxy.
A coalition of citizen-scientists with NASA’s ‘Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’ projectwere the first to spot the celestial body, the US space agency confirmed this week.
‘I can’t describe the level of excitement,’ German citizen-scientist Martin Kabatnik, a long-time member of NASA’s Backyard Worlds program, said in statement.
‘When I first saw how fast it was moving,’ the Nuremberg-based
researcher confessed, ‘I was convinced it must have been reported
already.’
Backyard Worlds citizen-scientists Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle
and Dan Caselden were the first to spot this million mph object a few
years ago, earning the hyper-speed object the catalogued name CWISE
J124909.08+362116.0.
According to astronomer Dr Kyle Kremer,
who has collaborated with them on better understanding the object,
several astrophysics theories could explain how the object, CWISE J1249
for short, could have gotten to its incredible speed.
In one theory, CWISE J1249 rocketed out of a two star or binary star
system after its ‘white dwarf’ sister star died off — collapsing in an
explosive runaway nuclear fusion reaction called a supernova.
Another viable theory has it that CWISE J1249 originated inside a
tight cluster of starts called a ‘globular cluster’ where it was flung
free via the pull of a black hole.
‘When a star encounters a black hole binary,’ Dr Kremer said in a
NASA statement on the discovery, ‘the complex dynamics of this
three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular
cluster.’
Sławosz Uznański will be the second Pole in space and the first to fly to the International Space Station (ISS).
Uznański revealed that his mission to the ISS is planned for 2025 and will last about two weeks. He will launch from Cape Canaveral on a rocket provided by SpaceX. This journey not only represents a significant milestone for Uznański but also for Polish space exploration.
Last year, Uznański was officially selected for this mission, after which he commenced his training at the European Space Agency’s facility in Cologne, Germany. Initially planned for 2024, the mission faced delays, but new details have recently emerged on Uznański’s social media profiles.
During his two-week stay on the ISS, he will focus on Polish scientific projects and technology tests, including artificial intelligence applications in space and studies on the effects of microgravity on the human immune system.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA) received numerous project proposals for Uznański’s mission. Due to limited space, only seven were selected, highlighting the extensive interest and potential impact of this mission.
Uznański will travel to the ISS in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, a vehicle regularly used by NASA for transporting astronauts. The Crew Dragon will be mounted atop a Falcon 9 rocket, with the launch also set to take place at Cape Canaveral. While the exact launch date is yet to be confirmed, preparations are in full swing.
In a move to further his training, Uznański has relocated to Houston, Texas. Starting Monday, he will begin a new training phase at Axiom Space, a partner in the mission, followed by sessions at NASA and SpaceX facilities. This mission not only propels Uznański into space but also significantly advances Poland’s stature in the global aerospace sector.
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