A study found that the oldest continents in our galaxy may be… It arose 5 billion years before the Earth appearedThis means that there may be multiple worlds in the Milky Way that harbor alien life, more advanced than our own.
Astrobiologists point out that “the planet needs certain features to support life: oxygen in its atmosphere, an element that protects living organisms from dangerous radiation, and liquid water, for starters.”
Although plate tectonics is not absolutely necessary for life, Earth’s history shows that it is important for organisms to flourish and exist for long periods of time. So, if there were exoplanet continents before Earth, that means there may have been older, more advanced life on that world.
Plate tectonics plays an important role in reducing the Earth’s temperature, as it allows heat to escape from the core, and the presence of a lot of heat in the core would prevent the Earth’s protective magnetosphere. However, some research shows that plate tectonics were not very active billions of years ago when life first appeared. So they may not be necessary for life to begin, but for life to continue and evolve into more complex organisms like humans, they are likely necessary.
These sciences led Jane Greaves, an astronomer at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, to answer the question: When did the first continents appear on a planet in our galaxy? It turns out that two continents of exoplanets, and perhaps life, likely originated four to five billion years ago from Earth.
“If life began on another planet five billion years ago, it would likely host more advanced life,” Greaves wrote in a study published in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
Continents are formed due to plate tectonics, which is the movement of rocky plates that float above the molten interior of the planet.
The oldest continents in the Milky Way may be 5 billion years older than Earth”s – https://t.co/AtuKzV33Rn
— Mark ??☮️ (@FerL67) November 11, 2023
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