Complex life on Earth may last 500 million years longer than expected

 

Image courtesy of Vimal-S/Unsplash,

Joel Kontinen

How long  will complex life dwell on Earth? Some researchers say that it will be 500 million years in the future.

As the sun expands over the coming billions of years, Earth will become inhospitable to any life more complex than a microbe – but that might take longer than we thought.

The sun is getting brighter and expanding as it ages, and will one day begin to cook our planet before engulfing it altogether – but complex life may be able to hold on in this hellish Earth scenario for much longer than we previously thought.

Estimates based on looking at other stars suggest that our sun is maturing into a red giant, a process that will destroy Earth in around 5 billion years, but it remains an open question as to how long the planet will remain habitable. As far as complex life goes, the last standing will be the vegetative biosphere – plants, both aquatic and terrestrial. Their ability to continue thriving will be mediated in part by the temperature of the planet, but mainly by the levels of carbon dioxide, which is necessary for photosynthesis.

But  according to the book of Revelation, life on Earth will be very different.

 Source:

 Leah Crane 2026 Complex life on Earth may last 500 million years longer than expected | New Scientist18 June 

 

Arctic Ocean reaches tipping point that could be dire for marine life

 

Image courtesy of European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery,

Joel Kontinen

As sea ice melts, more light will infiltrate the Arctic Ocean, allowing phytoplankton and other marine life to flourish – or so we thought. In fact, phytoplankton growth in some parts of the Arctic is now starving other parts of a crucial nutrient, a tipping point that could spell trouble for seals, polar bears and even commercial fish in the north Atlantic.

The Arctic Ocean might be dire for marina life. As the sea ice melts, it causes more sunlight in the Arctic Ocean. This causes phytoplankton to grow and has depleted a crucial nutrient, which could severely affect animals higher up the food chain.

Phytoplankton, the tiny photosynthesising organisms that form the basis of the marine food chain, have been increasing across the Arctic, according to satellite measurements of the green pigment chlorophyll. Algal blooms there have broken records.

Source:  

 Alec Luhn 2026 Arctic Ocean reaches tipping point that could be dire for marine life | New Scientist 16 June

 

Iran Sent Missiles At Israel, On The Exact WRONG Hebrew Date!

‘Forgotten’ pollutants cause 15 per cent of global warming

 

Image courtesy of Jonas Gratzer/Jonas Gratzer

Joel Kontinen

Why do the so called forgotten pollutants cause a great deal of global warming? Searchers say that the indirect greenhouse gases can contribute 15 per cent of what is understood as global  warning. 

Carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds don’t just poison the air we breathe. They also fuel chemical reactions in the atmosphere that heat the planet.

Of all the global warming that has happened since the pre-industrial era, about 15 per cent has been caused by emissions other than greenhouse gases, mainly carbon monoxide and VOCs. That is double the contribution of nitrous oxide, the third-most-common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane.

Source:

 Alec Luhn 2026 ‘Forgotten’ pollutants cause 15 per cent of global warming | New Scientist 11 June 

Wolves seen hunting European bison in rare camera-trap recording

 

Image courtesy of John Ceulemans/Shutterstock

Joel Kontinen

Europe’s largest land animal, the bison, is thought to be relatively unthreatened by predators, but footage from Białowieża Primaeval Forest in Poland shows it does face attacks from wolves.

Wolves are making a comeback in many parts of Europe

Deep in the Polish wilderness, a camera trap has captured a pack of wolves hunting down a juvenile bison.

The rare footage suggests that in Europe, bison might be on the menu for wolves more commonly than previously thought.

“My mind was blown,” says Robin Wijnands at the Polish Academy of Sciences. “I was really surprised because I really didn’t expect wolves to hunt bison, especially when there are so many other prey available in the forest.”

These attacks happened after the first humans – Adam and Eve  - rebelled after what God  said in Genesis 3 about the fall of man. Animals also begin to kill each other.   

Source:

Gennaro Tomma 2026 Wolves seen hunting European bison in rare camera-trap recording | New Scientist 10 June 

What Trump said about the Iranian war?

What Israel shall do with the Iranian assault in Israel and the war in Lebanon?

 

Earth has a mysterious triple symmetry that may influence its climate

 

Image courtesy of Planetary Visions Ltd/Science Photo Library

Joel Kontinen

The Earth is more special than we thought.

A line that runs through Africa, Europe, Alaska and both poles divides Earth into two halves that reflect the same amount of light – and this newly discovered symmetry may play a critical role in the planet’s climate.

It was previously known that the northern and southern hemispheres have almost equal reflectivity, or albedo, but Jianhao Zhang at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US and his colleagues have now uncovered a second line of symmetry along the 27° east and 153° west meridians.

At first, Zhang thought it must be a coincidence. “What convinced me that the east-west symmetry is not trivial are three features: its uniqueness, its persistence and what we call the triple symmetry feature,” he says. “Finding one division with equal total reflection might be expected. But finding a persistent, unique east-west division that also balances land-ocean distribution, clear-sky reflection and cloudy-sky reflection is much less trivial – especially given how variable and dynamic clouds are.”

Øivind Hodnebrog  says “I was a bit sceptical of an east-west symmetry separated at around 27 degrees east, which intuitively seems much less obvious than a separation at the equator,

However, Hodnebrog says he now agrees it is likely a “robust feature, and potentially another fascinating property of the Earth”.

The connection to ENSO may also be significant, says Hodnebrog. Unlike the north-south symmetry, which appears to be weakening due to the effects of climate change on sea ice and clouds, the east-west symmetry is currently stable, though models suggest it could weaken in future. “A potential future asymmetry could be an indication of changes in the atmospheric circulation,” he says.

Martin Jucker at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, says there is a high potential that the east-west symmetry is a coincidence.

“Earth’s weather and climate communicate easily across longitudes,” says Jucker. “This is due to Earth’s rotation, which creates bands of circum-global easterly and westerly winds, and atmospheric perturbations preferentially propagating in the east-west direction as well.”

Source:

James Woodford 2026 Earth has a mysterious triple symmetry that may influence its climate | New Scientist 3 June