The oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere is currently gone in a billion years, scientists say. This image of Earth’s atmosphere was taken from the International Space Station on February 26, 2021. Image through NASA.
Take a deep breath. Nitrogen and oxygen are the air that expand your chest, the main components of our atmosphere. Our atmosphere contains oxygen thanks to planting, through a process of photosynthesis. A study released in March 2021 shows that – billions of years from now, as the sun heats up – plants will die, taking away the oxygen in the atmosphere that humans and animals need. breathe.
Kazumi Ozaki of the University of Tokyo and Chris Reinhard of Georgia Tech explained the Earth’s climatic, biological, and geological systems to give scientists a good understanding of the future state of the atmosphere on Earth. They conducted the research as part of a NASA program called NExSS to study and evaluate the viability of exoplanets. Their study was published March 1, 2021, in the peer-reviewed journal Geology of nature.
Earth’s normal atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.1% other gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and neon. The Earth has never had a high level of oxygen in the atmosphere. For the first 2 billion years on Earth, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. Low levels of oxygen first appeared when cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, began releasing oxygen as a result of photosynthesis. Then, about 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth went under the Great Oxygen Event. At this stage, whether it was through volcanic eruption or evolutionary innovation that cyanobacteria became more successful, oxygen began to accumulate in larger amounts in the atmosphere, killing some bacteria. but allowing a more complex life (us!) to emerge.
This oxygen utopia in which we currently live – where plants produce oxygen for humans and animals to breathe – is only a temporary condition on Earth. As Ozaki said:
We find that the Earth’s oxygen uptake will not be a permanent feature.
Kazumi Ozaki of the University of Tokyo, lead author of the paper examining the future of oxygen on Earth. Image through NASA.
As the solar system continues its life cycle, the sun will begin to age. The greater solar output warms the atmosphere, and the carbon dioxide responds to the temperature rise by breaking down. Carbon dioxide levels go down so do photosynthesizing organisms – which depend on the absorption of carbon dioxide for survival, just as we rely on oxygen for its live – now alive, removing the source of oxygen from the Earth. (Read about how scientists believe phytoplankton contributes between 50 to 85% of the oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere.) So when plants die from a lack of carbon dioxide, it’s not just a loss in the food chain is but, crucially, a loss in the air they emit and the air we breathe.
While the end of oxygen is still a billion years away, when depletion begins to take hold, it will happen very quickly, in about 10,000 years. Reinhard explained how serious the change was:
The depletion of oxygen is very, very extreme; we are talking about a million times less oxygen than it is today.
Chris Reinhard of Georgia Tech, one of the leading authors who studied the future of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. Image via NExSS.
The event of future deoxygenation occurs at the same time as an increase in methane, so that methane levels will be about 10,000 times greater than in the atmosphere today. These movements occur too quickly for the change in the biosphere. The ozone depletion, produced by oxygen, will evaporate, and ultraviolet light and heat will help eliminate ground and water life. All but microbes will be eliminated. Reinhard said:
A world where many anaerobic and primitive bacteria are currently hiding in the shadows, will once again be hidden.
Just as in the beginning, when life on Earth was in microbial form before the combination we see today flourished, so too will the future look very much like the past. disappear, as if the clock were running backwards, and complex life forms disappear. except tiny colonies of cells.
All plant and animal life on Earth needs oxygen to survive. Billions of years from now, the Earth’s oxygen will deplete in about 10,000 years, causing worldwide extinction for all but microbes. Image via Dikaseva / Unsplash.
The study of the past and future of the Earth is a gateway to understanding the conditions favorable to life on other planets. The presence of oxygen is an important factor in determining the existence of life on a planet. As we will see with Earth, however, a planet that does not have the name oxygen may be capable of sustaining life in the future or in the past.
So, while finding a planet with oxygen would be an interesting step towards finding life, no the detection of oxygen should not deplete a planet’s potential never he had a life.
Bottom line: Billions of years from now, scientists say, while the sun heats up the warmer atmosphere breaks down carbon dioxide, kills plant life, which destroys it the Earth’s oxygen source.
Source: The future lifespan of the Earth’s oxygen atmosphere
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