• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Sunday, August 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Movement of the solar system through the Milky Way’s galactic spiral arms helped form Earth’s first continents

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 24, 2022
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

24 August 2022
The Geological Society of America
Release no. 22-44
Contributed by Laura Fattaruso
Contact: Kea Giles
+1-303-357-1057
[email protected]
 

Spiral Galaxy

Credit: Chris Kirkland and colleagues.

24 August 2022
The Geological Society of America
Release no. 22-44
Contributed by Laura Fattaruso
Contact: Kea Giles
+1-303-357-1057
[email protected]
 

For Immediate Release

 

Boulder, Colo., USA: A new study of zircon crystals from two of Earth’s oldest continents indicates that the formation of Earth’s continental crust goes through cycles, with periods of increased crust production roughly every 200 million years, corresponding to the solar system’s transit through the four primary spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. According to the study published in the journal Geology yesterday, regions of space with dense interstellar clouds may send more high-energy comets crashing to the surface of the Earth, seeding enhanced production of continental crust.

“As geologists, we normally think about processes internal to the earth being really important for how our planet has evolved. But we can also think about the much larger scale and look at extraterrestrial processes and where we fit in the galactic environment,” explains Chris Kirkland, lead author of the study.

Among its many unique features, Earth remains the only planet we know of that hosts continents and active plate tectonics. Plate-tectonic processes have helped make our planet hospitable to life—shaping the composition and behavior of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.

The data used in this new study came from two places where Earth’s earliest continental history is preserved: the North American craton in Greenland and the Pilbara craton in western Australia. In both locations, decay of uranium in zircon crystals has been used to establish a timeline of formation, spanning the period from roughly 2.8–3.8 billion years ago, during the Archean eon. Hafnium isotopes measured within the zircon were used to identify periods of time when there were influxes of juvenile magmas associated with crust production. Using mathematical analysis, the researchers uncovered the longer period pattern corresponding with the “galactic year.” They observed a similar pattern when looking at oxygen isotopes, bolstering their results.

The researchers point to galactic traffic as the likely source of this pattern. Our Solar System and the spiral arms of the Milky Way are both spinning around the galaxy’s center, but they are moving at different speeds. While the spiral arms orbit at 210 km/second, the sun is cruising along at 240 km/second, meaning it is surfing into and out of spiral arms over time. At the outer reaches of our solar system, astronomers believe there is a cloud of icy planetesimals—named the Oort cloud—orbiting our sun at a distance of between 0.03 to 3.2 light years (for comparison, the Earth is 8.3 light minutes from the Sun). As the solar system moves into a spiral arm, interaction between the Oort cloud and the denser material of the spiral arms could send more icy material from the Oort cloud hurling toward Earth. While Earth experiences more regular impacts from the rocky bodies of the asteroid belt, comets ejected from the Oort cloud arrive with much more energy. Kirkland explains, “That’s important because more energy will result in more melting. When it hits, it causes larger amounts of decompression melting, creating a larger uplift of material, creating a larger crustal seat.”

Spherule beds—rock formations produced by meteorite impacts—are another key piece of evidence linking periods of increased crust generation to comet impacts. Spherule beds are deposits of small spheres formed either as ejected impact melt or condensed and rained out from rock-vapor plumes after impact. The authors of the study observed that the ages of spherule beds are well-correlated with the solar system’s movement into spiral arms around 3.25 and 3.45 billion years ago. Determining the ages for more deposits of spherule beds could add more evidence to the story.

Phil Sutton, an astrophysicist and coauthor of the study, explains that these findings should motivate more investigation of how forces outside the solar system have shaped our planet. “It’s very hard to prove these things; we want to make that link and start the conversation to look at geological processes beyond the Earth, beyond the Solar System, and what might drive those. We didn’t just form in isolation.”

FEATURED ARTICLE
Did transit through the galactic spiral arms seed crust production on the early Earth?
C.L. Kirkland; P.J. Sutton; T. Erickson; T.E. Johnson; M.I.H. Hartnady; H. Smithies; M. Prause
Author contact: Chris Kirkland, [email protected]
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/doi/10.1130/G50513.1/616377/Did-transit-through-the-galactic-spiral-arms-seed



Journal

Geology

Article Title

Did transit through the galactic spiral arms seed crust production on the early Earth?

Article Publication Date

23-Aug-2022

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Flame Synthesis Creates Custom High-Entropy Metal Nanomaterials

August 2, 2025
Innovative Acid-Base Bifunctional Catalyst Enhances Production of Essential Lithium-Ion Battery Material

Innovative Acid-Base Bifunctional Catalyst Enhances Production of Essential Lithium-Ion Battery Material

August 1, 2025

Oven-Temperature Treatment (~300℃) Enhances Catalyst Performance by Six Times

August 1, 2025

5 Innovations Securing Water Sources and Ensuring Availability

August 1, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Boosting Stem Cell Growth with Testis Scaffolds

Intracorporeal vs Extracorporeal Anastomosis Trial

Self-Normal, Biorthogonal Phase Transitions in Non-Hermitian Quantum Walks

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.