What are these mysterious ghost islands that appear and disappear in the Arctic? ● Extinct planet from our solar system, source of strange diamonds ● At least 100 new spider species to be discovered in coming years ● And experts change their minds about what killed the dinosaurs

GreenlandPhoto: Odd ANDERSEN / AFP / Profimedia

What are these mysterious ghost islands that appear and disappear in the Arctic?

After nearly a century of mysterious islands being spotted in the Arctic and then disappearing without a trace, a joint team of researchers from Denmark and Switzerland appears to have discovered what the secret is. It all started with a similar discovery in 2021, when an island appeared off the northern coast of Greenland.

Kiss those who discovered her, give her pictures, champagne and give her a name that is easy to pronounce and remember, that is “Kekertak Avannarlek”. In the local dialect, it means “northernmost island”. You got it, it just became the northernmost strip of land on the planet.

The problem arose when the explorers followed her again and took the island where it didn’t belong. At first they thought it was from too much champagne, but it wasn’t. Then they remembered that this had happened dozens of times over the past 100 years. To that end, the aforementioned team went in search of other mysterious islands, and the answer to this vexing question was revealed this month. More precisely, it is not about any island. They could not see well.

In fact, we are talking about uglier icebergs, on which all kinds of muddy sediments, formed as a result of landslides, have accumulated. Well, humans have also discovered several such “islands” that are only suitable for breaking away from the original glacier and floating in the ocean for a while. Bottom line, nothing is visible there, please vacate the area.

An extinct planet from our solar system, the source of strange diamonds

Diamonds, the atoms of which are arranged hexagonally, do not occur naturally on our planet. In our country, simply put, carbon atoms are arranged cubically, say experts from the University of Melbourne, Australia, quoted by New Scientist.

The mystery arose in the 1960s, when several such diamonds were analyzed. Under the microscope, a hexagonal structure appeared, but the samples were extremely small, so experts at the time said they could not see it well. Recently, they analyzed four new diamonds discovered in northwest Africa, and the situation became clearer. Okay, so one clue would be that these diamonds were found in meteorites, so they are extraterrestrial in origin.

It was only necessary to carefully analyze everything, which scientists did. Because of the atypical composition for Earth, they concluded that such diamonds are formed on dwarf planets. More precisely, the diamonds were formed as a result of enormous pressure and the reaction between graphite, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur and methane, that is, researchers say, quite clear traces of the collision of such a planet with the asteroid that destroyed it. -and.

Most likely, this happened about 4.5 billion years ago, around the beginning of our solar system. It’s good that these diamonds are much harder than earth ones, and they can be mined artificially. In principle, they will be used on industrial machines, but if you have the money and want to impress your more sensitive half, feel free to order. Let’s see what delicious charms come out for Christmas with a diamond of this purity on the finger!

At least 100 new species of spiders will be discovered in the coming years

Australians know their stuff, so they’ve launched a massive project to identify the spiders there before global warming kills them off. So far, 24 new species have been discovered and they won’t stop until they reach hundreds, according to experts on Queensland spiders, tarantulas and other arachnids, quoted by Cosmos magazine. Specialists from Queensland, not spiders.

It doesn’t seem like the most pleasant way to learn about nature, but for $7.6 million, how much was invested in the project, what does a person not do? Spider enthusiasts may discover that Australia is home to some of the largest species, some even bird-eating, such as the magnificent gas Xamiatus magnificus. Specialists are excited that they can find at least as big and dangerous, and some maybe even bigger, to better understand the evolution of these creatures, to whom we wish success and will be with them.

By the way, if you suffer from arachnophobia, that is, you are afraid of spiders, do not read this news!

And experts have changed their minds about what killed the dinosaurs

It’s a good thing we’re used to the idea that the Chicxulub asteroid threw a party for the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago, some specialists from New Hampshire come to tell us that we’ve been used to it for nothing, that the hypothesis is bad.

I mean, there was an asteroid, but it wasn’t so bad that it wiped out all the dinosaurs except the ones that evolved into birds. Rather, the culprit would be a supervolcano that erupted across India and remained so for several tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, say the experts in their study published in PNAS, it could be the cause of all the great extinctions of life… supervolcanoes.

To arrive at this discovery, which is likely to be challenged soon, they say they would have analyzed data from colossal supereruptions, also known as supervolcanoes, and large episodes of life extinction. They found that life really does mostly disappear during such disasters, and between us, you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out. Now, that there would be other reasons is obvious, and we will soon learn that even the proponents of the hypothesis of a destructive influence on the heavenly bodies will not sit idly by.

One thing can be said for sure that there has never been a shortage of disasters on Earth. Let’s be healthy, so that until they solve the case about the disappearance of dinosaurs, another one will come, God forbid, and calm everyone down.

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