New study reveals when Earth will run out of oxygen

Technology

03:44 GMT 03.10.2021Get a short url

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Oxygen is an essential element that is commonly accepted as a possible indicator of life on exoplanets. However, Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere that makes it habitable may not be permanent.

All oxygen on Earth could disappear within the next billion years, potentially resulting in the death of all animals and plants on the planet, a new study published in Nature Geoscience reveals.

According to the results, the lifespan of Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere is estimated to be one billion years. However, the fundamental timescale of oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere remains uncertain.

“For many years, the lifespan of the Earth’s biosphere has been discussed based on scientific knowledge about the regular brightening of the sun and the global carbonate-silicate geochemical cycle,” said researcher Kazumi Ozaki, assistant professor at University of Toho.

Scientists behind the study believe deoxygenation is “an inevitable consequence” of increased solar fluxes, as the Sun ages and emits more heat.

“The atmosphere after the great deoxygenation is characterized by high methane, low levels of CO2 and no ozone layer. The earth system will likely be a world of anaerobic life forms,” Ozaki said, referring to the way including creatures that need oxygen to survive. not being able to inhabit the planet.

The results are based on a model of the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere that was built with the use of a stochastic approach, allowing the team to make a probabilistic assessment of the lifespan of our oxygenated atmosphere.

The model has been run over 400,000 times with various parameters to suggest that oxygen on Earth may only be a billion years older before solar radiation destroys it.

As the research was conducted as part of NASA’s NexSS program which explores the habitability of exoplanets, the team pointed out that it might be useful for scientists to consider additional biosignatures applicable to poorly oxygenated and anoxic worlds. in the search for life beyond the solar system.