Scientists Will Melt Some of Earth's Oldest Ice to Solve Climate Mystery
Over the course of seven weeks, scientists at the British Antarctic Survey plan to gradually melt 1.5-million-year-old Antarctic ice cores at their lab in Cambridge, England, unlocking whatever dust, volcanic ash, and even single-celled algae that might be preserved inside. These materials hold clues about Earth's ancient climate and atmospheric composition, and could provide new insights into how greenhouse gases influenced global temperatures more than a million years ago. They could also help scientists understand how human-generated emissions will shape Earth's future.
'Our climate system has been through so many different changes that we really need to be able to go back in time to understand these different processes and different tipping points,' Liz Thomas, head of ice core research at the BAS, told the BBC.
One crucial mystery the scientists hope to solve is why Earth's glacial cycles appeared to suddenly switch at a point between 800,000 and 1.2 million years ago, a shift known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Antarctic ice core analysis done in 2004 found a close link between Earth's climate and atmospheric gases over the past 800,000 years, suggesting that the planet experienced ice ages interspersed with warmer periods on a 100,000-year cycle. But marine sediment records dating back at least 1 million years have indicated that, before then, glacial periods occurred more frequently, about once every 41,000 years.
Thomas and her colleagues hope the new cores will reveal the composition of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere during this mysterious transition, and that could explain why it happened at all.
'The project is driven by a central scientific question: why did the planet's climate cycle shift roughly one million years ago from a 41,000-year to a 100,000-year phasing of glacial-interglacial cycles?' Thomas said in a statement.
'By extending the ice core record beyond this turning point, researchers hope to improve predictions of how Earth's climate may respond to future greenhouse gas increases.'
Her team will use a technique called continuous flow analysis, which involves slowly melting ice core sections and simultaneously measuring any chemical elements, particles, and isotopic data to extrapolate Earth's past climate conditions. Air bubbles trapped inside the cores can reveal our planet's ancient atmospheric conditions, changes in greenhouse gas concentrations, and Earth's temperature at the time.
'This unprecedented ice core dataset will provide vital insights into the link between atmospheric [carbon dioxide] levels and climate during a previously uncharted period in Earth's history, offering valuable context for predicting future climate change,' Thomas said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Nearby super-Earth K2-18 b may be a water-rich ocean planet: 'This has certainly increased the chances of habitability'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The saga surrounding Neptune-size "super-Earth" exoplanet K2-18 b just got a whole lot more interesting. For a quick recap, this is the world a team of scientists recently suggested could host life — to the dismay of other scientists in the community, who felt the announcement failed to include necessary caution. While signs of life on the world have failed to conclusively present themselves to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the powerful space telescope has discovered that this planet is so rich in liquid water that it could be an ocean, or "Hycean" world. "This has certainly increased the chances of habitability on K2-18 b" Nikku Madhusudhan, the University of Cambridge scientist behind the original K2-18b discovery as well as the new study, told "This is a very important development and further increases the chance of a Hycean environment in K2-18 b. It confirms K2-18 b to be our best chance to study a potential habitable environment beyond the solar system at the present time." The story regarding the habitability of K2-18 b began back in April 2025, when Madhusudhan and fellow researchers from the University of Cambridge announced they had found what they called the "strongest evidence yet" of life beyond the solar system around this distant super-Earth (it's around nine times as massive as our planet). The evidence came from the tentative detection of molecules that, when found in the atmosphere of Earth, are typically the result of biological processes of living things. The pressure was then on to confirm these potential biosignatures: dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide. The team set about this by observing four separate instances of K2-18 b crossing, or "transiting," the face of its parent red dwarf star, located about 124 light-years away, during its roughly 33-Earth-day orbit. Because chemicals absorb and emit light at characteristic wavelengths, when light from a parent star passes through a planet's atmosphere, the molecules in that atmosphere leave their telltale fingerprints in the spectrum of starlight. "With four additional transit observations using JWST, we have measured the spectrum of K2-18 b's atmosphere with unprecedented precision," Renyu Hu, the new study's team leader and a NASA Jet Propulsion Lab scientist, told "The spectrum allowed us to conclusively detect both methane and carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere and to constrain their abundances. This information points to a planet with a water-rich interior." Hu explained that the team searched for signals of dimethyl sulfide and other organic sulfur molecules in the spectrum using several independent models, but did not find conclusive evidence for their presence. "This was not necessarily disappointing," Hu continued. "We're excited about establishing the planet's water-rich nature." Is K2-18 b a ocean world? Saying it's now confirmed that K2-18 b is water-rich, Hu explained that the next step is to discover if the planet possesses a global liquid water ocean. Ironically, one of the most positive signs of such an ocean is the fact that the atmosphere of this super-Earth appears to lack water vapor. "The spectrum we obtained does not show signs of water vapor. If the atmosphere truly lacks water, this suggests that water has been depleted — most likely through condensation," Hu said. "On Earth, this process is known as the 'cold trap,' and geoscientists consider it essential for retaining water over billions of years by preventing it from escaping to space. "Observing a similar process on an exoplanet would be very exciting. Rigorously confirming the absence of water can by itself be a scientifically important goal for future observations," Hu said. However, Hu cautioned that the spectrum detected by the JWST could also be explained by an alternative model in which the atmosphere actually contains abundant water vapor. Establishing whether K2-18 b and other similar temperate, sub-Neptune-sized planets possess liquid water oceans, Hu says, will also require detecting the presence of a broader set of atmospheric gases beyond methane and carbon dioxide. It would also require an absence of molecules like ammonia, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, which, as of yet, have indeed not been detected in the atmosphere of K2-18 b "This conclusion is based on theoretical work by my group and several others," Hu added. "With the new observations providing valuable context, we've summarized these insights into a roadmap to help guide future observations and studies." Meanwhile, the search for the biosignatures, dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide, is far from done; while not hitting the significance level required for a confirmation, this research did provide a stronger signal from these molecules than were provided by previous examinations. "The evidence for dimethyl sulfide in the present work is significantly higher than what we had with our previous observations in the same near-infrared wavelength range," Madhusudhan said. "However, this evidence is still not high enough to claim a conclusive detection. "We also need to be able to distinguish dimethyl sulfide from other possible contributors, such as methyl mercaptan, which is also a biosignature on Earth." Related Stories: — The mystery of how strange cosmic objects called 'JuMBOs' went rogue — These mysterious objects born in violent clashes between young star systems aren't stars or planets — James Webb Space Telescope dives into the atmosphere of a mystery rogue planet or failed star It looks certain that K2-18 b will continue to hold the interest of astronomers for some time. "It is great that we are able to infer tentative signs of potential biosignatures with current JWST observations, but significantly more time is needed for conclusive detections. A key question is whether the atmosphere contains one or more biosignatures," Madhusudhan said. "At the same time, extensive theoretical and experimental efforts are needed to robustly identify biological and non-biological pathways for candidate biosignature molecules." One thing the team is sure of, though, is the progress made thus far in the study of K2-18 b wouldn't have been possible without the JWST. And, the $10 billion space telescope is set to play a key role in the future investigation of this super-Earth. "Our observations and analyses add to the growing list of exciting discoveries that highlight the truly transformative science enabled by JWST," Hu concluded. "While we found its Near-Infrared Spectrograph [NIRSpec] particularly well suited to address the goals of our study, other JWST instruments or observational modes could provide complementary and highly valuable information to further enhance our understanding of this planet." The team's research is available as a preprint on the paper repository arXiv. Solve the daily Crossword
Fast Company
3 hours ago
- Fast Company
Pfizer and BioNTech lose appeal in London over Moderna COVID vaccine patent
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Friday lost their bid to overturn a ruling that their COVID-19 vaccine infringed one of Moderna's patents at London's Court of Appeal. Last year, the High Court ruled that one of Moderna's patents relating to the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which underpinned its COVID-19 vaccine, was valid and that Pfizer and BioNTech's Comirnaty vaccine had infringed it, meaning Moderna is entitled to damages in relation to sales after March 2022. The High Court also ruled that the other Moderna patent under challenge in the case was invalid. Moderna was refused permission to appeal against that decision. But Pfizer and BioNTech were granted permission to appeal in an attempt to try and invalidate Moderna's second patent and appealed earlier this month, arguing Moderna's developments of mRNA technology were obvious developments of previous work, rendering the patent invalid. Judge Richard Arnold, however, rejected Pfizer and BioNTech's appeal. Pfizer and BioNTech said in a joint statement that the decision 'does not change our unwavering stance that this patent is invalid' and the companies will seek to appeal. 'This decision has no immediate impact on Pfizer and BioNTech or Comirnaty,' the companies added. Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Friday's decision in the latest ruling in the legal dispute between the two sides over their competing vaccines, which helped save millions of lives during the pandemic. The companies have also been involved in proceedings in Germany – where a court ruled in Moderna's favour in March – the United States Patent Office, which held that two Moderna COVID-19 vaccine patents were invalid, and elsewhere.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Family roots: potatoes evolved from tomatoes, study reveals ...Tech & Science Daily podcast
Listen here on your chosen podcast platform. A study has revealed that potatoes evolved from a tomato ancestor. We're joined by co-author Dr Sandy Knapp, a merit researcher at the Natural History Museum, who explains how this discovery uncovers a missing piece of the potato's evolutionary history. 'If you look in your garden at a potato plant and a tomato plant, you will immediately start to see some similarities' Welcome to the world, Thaddeus Daniel Pierce, the 'oldest baby' to have ever been born. He was born in the US from an embryo that had been stored for thirty years. And which UK city is receiving the most suspected scam emails or texts? Also in this episode: -The technology transforming a London garden into a live orchestra, with Hilary Lam, EMEA Sustainability Leader at Amazon Web Services -OpenAI have announced plans for their first data centre in Europe -Scottish ocean rower performs bagpipes via livestream during an All American Rejects set at Comic Con -Ofcom reveals YouTube as the second most-watched media service in the UK -Darth Vader's lightsaber and Michael Keaton's Batman suit go to auction
