Li explained the destruction of comets

The ancients had countless reasons to believe that comets are an omen of misfortune, due to its appearance that coincided with disasters and epidemics.

The new study shows that a piece of Halley's infamous comet likely fell to Earth in 536. This impact has blown the dust storm into the atmosphere and cooled the planet. As a result, this sudden climate change has led to drought and starvation around the world, and can make humanity more vulnerable to the Justinian epidemic that took place in the period 541 - 542. at the time of the first rise of the Black Death , only plague spread in Europe. According to some documents, the pandemic occurred in the Byzantine empire of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). About 5,000 people lost their lives every day and within a short time, half of the population in the city of Constantinople disappeared.

This hypothesis was drawn from the ice analysis in Greenland, accreted from about 533 to 540. Ice cores recorded a residual trace of atmospheric dust over a period of seven years, and not into any part of this dust is of earth origin.'Cosmic dusty core' , Dallas Abbott team leader, from Earth Observatory.

Photo of Halley comet on January 13, 1986 - (Photo: NASA / JPL)

Lamont-Doherty of Columbia University (USA) spoke at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Association. According to Abbott expert, the analysis results show that comets are the source of cosmic dust at that time. And due to the layers of dust accumulating in the spring of the Northern Hemisphere, this shows that they came from the Eta Aquarid meteor shower , the material derived from Halley comet.

Eta Aquarid dust may be responsible for the cooling of the atmosphere in 533, but such a single event still cannot explain why the global climate has dropped by 3 degrees Celsius since 536 By 537. Meanwhile, ice core data recorded evidence of a volcanic eruption in 536, but still not enough catalysts to cause climate change. Therefore, Abbott thinks that the "oligarch " of this whole thing must be a certain object that has hit the surface of the globe. From this inference, female scientists and colleagues found evidence of a collision. When analyzing further ice cores, they discovered small fossils of tropical sea creatures, including diatoms. According to experts, a collision in tropical waters is likely to send these microorganisms to Greenland cold. And expert Abbott thinks this cosmic object must be a piece of Halley's comet.

According to calculations, for every 76 years Halley comets come close to the earth. Previous research has shown that the ancient Greeks witnessed this comet gliding along the sky in 466 BC. And it also appeared in the sky on Earth in 530, shining brightly.'In the two most glorious appearances of Halley comet, there was once once in 530' , Science Now quoted Abbott expert. 'Comets are often referred to as' dirty 'snowballs, but when they break or empty the outer crumbs, that's when the outer layer is removed, and they keep shining' , according to Abbott experts.

It is unclear where the impact is, as well as the size of the comet that has fallen to earth. However, a study in 2004 estimated that a piece of a 600-meter-wide comet could have caused a global temperature drop in the period 536-537 if it exploded in the atmosphere.