Earth explodes with life thanks to 'threat from space'?

About 591 - 565 million years ago, the Earth's magnetosphere almost "collapsed" .

The type of event that could cause "apocalypse" in the present actually spurred the most important biological explosion on Earth during the Precambrian period, a study just published in Communications Earth & Environment shows.

About 600 - 540 million years ago, life on Earth consisted of soft-bodied organisms known as the Ediacaran fauna , the most ancient complex multicellular animals known.

Activity deep inside the Earth's core creates an invisible armor for the planet, the magnetosphere - (Graphic image: ESA).

The fossil record shows that these organisms diversified significantly in complexity and variety between 575-565 million years ago, setting the stage for the biological explosion of the Cambrian period (541-485 million years ago). before).

Previous research showed that this diversification was linked to a dramatic increase in atmospheric and oceanic oxygen levels that occurred during the same period.

However, it remains unclear why this increase in oxygen occurs.

According to SciTech Daily, a multinational research team led by Dr. John Tarduno from the University of Rochester (USA) found the answer through analyzing the magnetic properties of 21 crystals of plagioclase , a common mineral. in the Earth's crust.

These crystals were extracted from a 591 million year old rock block in Brazil.

The results showed a terrifying truth: 591 million years ago, the Earth's magnetic field strength was up to 30 times weaker than today's magnetic field .

That may be the period when the planet's magnetosphere is most severely weakened, because a previous study showed that when it was first formed, the Earth's magnetic field, although weak, was half its current level.

For life today, that could be extremely bad news, because the magnetosphere is the layer that protects organisms on Earth and the atmosphere from harmful cosmic radiation.

The near-collapse of the magnetosphere - demonstrated by the weak magnetic field strength - will leave the ground "naked". 

This "falling from the sky" threat causes harmful cosmic rays, meteorites, etc. to have a higher chance of attacking the ground and everything that exists on it, thinning out the entire atmosphere. breathing.

But at 591 million years ago, this incident accidentally brought benefits.

The devastating cosmic ray attacks did indeed affect the early atmosphere, causing less hydrogen to escape into space.

But this happens only for a short time, not enough to make the Earth difficult to breathe like Mars, but on the contrary, the ratio of other gases in the air is rebalanced, the oxygen concentration increases.

Favorable oxygen concentrations have created conditions for primitive organisms to proliferate and evolve at unprecedented levels, thereby supporting the diversification of types and complexity of organisms.

Therefore, it can be said that this seemingly deadly incident contributed significantly to our existence today, as well as other creatures that need abundant oxygen levels to live.