How a Supernova 6 Million Years Ago May Have Kicked Evolution into Overdrive – The Daily Galaxy –Great Discoveries Channel

A massive supernova may have bombarded Earth with cosmic radiation 6 million years ago, triggering genetic mutations that reshaped life in Africa’s Lake Tanganyika—and possibly far beyond.Around 6 million years ago, a massive supernova may have sent a wave of cosmic radiation crashing into Earth. At first glance, this distant event in the cosmos might seem irrelevant to life on our planet. But a new study suggests that the explosion could have played a role in a rapid evolutionary shift—one that reshaped life in Africa’s Lake Tanganyika and possibly beyond.Scientists have long known that cosmic radiation can alter DNA, but could it have accelerated evolution itself? This research opens a provocative new chapter in our understanding of how deep space events might have shaped Earth’s biological history.Researchers, in a study recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, investigating sediment samples from Lake Tanganyika, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, uncovered something unusual: iron-60 isotopes. This rare element, produced in supernovae, was found in two distinct layers—one 6.5 million years old and another 2.5 million years old.The timing of the first iron-60 deposit aligns with a sudden surge in the diversity of viruses in the lake, a change that has puzzled scientists for years. The second deposit coincides with other suspected supernova impacts on Earth.By simulating the Sun’s movement through the Milky Way, researchers traced the likely origins of these cosmic rays to the Scorpius-Centaurus and Tucana-Horologium star clusters, which lie a few hundred light-years away. When the supernovae erupted, they would have bathed Earth in high-energy radiation for 100,000 years, enough time to potentially trigger significant biological changes.Cosmic rays are known to break DNA strands, causing mutations. In some cases, these mutations may be harmful, but they can also drive evolutionary leaps by introducing genetic diversity.Could the supernova have kickstarted an evolutionary chain reaction in Lake Tanganyika? The study’s lead author, Caitlyn Nojiri, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, believes it’s a possibility worth exploring. “It’s really cool to find ways in which these super distant things could impact our lives or the planet’s habitability,” she said.While the study doesn’t provide definitive proof of a cause-and-effect relationship, the alignment of cosmic radiation exposure and the explosion of new virus types is intriguing. If cosmic events millions of light-years away can shape life on Earth, what other hidden influences might be lurking in our planet’s past?Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

© 2024 | Daily Galaxy  | All rights reserved

Source: https://dailygalaxy.com/2025/02/supernova-6-million-years-evolution/