Thursday, 12 May 2016

Oldest mirometeorites ever found hold clues to Earth's ancient atmosphere

One of 60 pieces of cosmic dust, or micrometeorites, analyzed by the team

About 2.4 billion years ago on Earth, something known as the Great Oxygenation Event occurred when Earth's lower atmosphere began to become rich in O2 as oxygen sinks such as dissolved iron and organic material became saturated and couldn't hold any more. Before that, the air near the surface of our planet contained less than 0.001 percent of today's oxygen level. While we've known this for a while, scientists were never quite sure what the Earth's upper atmosphere looked like at the time. Now, by examining fossilized cosmic dust, a team of researchers has sorted it out.

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Category: Space

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from Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine http://ift.tt/1THUkmJ

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