​Saturn’s rings are not only recent, they will disappear soon ● The oldest human footprints discovered in Germany are about 300,000 years old ● The country where mammoth fossils are sold for beer

Saturn’s rings are not only recent, they will disappear soon

If until now all hypotheses about the origin of the rings of the planet Saturn claimed that they formed together with the planet about 4.5 billion years ago, a new study published in the journal Science Advances by a group of researchers from the University of Colorado tells us something completely different. In fact, it’s a pretty big paradigm shift in what the past of our solar system means.

Between 2004 and 2017, the team used an instrument called the Cosmic Dust Analyzer to study 163 cosmic particles collected by the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn’s rings. Hence the surprise, because, say the authors of the study, this dust has a concentration of 98% water. Like, it’s impossible to get that clean in 4.5 billion years, given the old assumptions.

By analyzing the rate at which “contaminating” materials can reach Saturn’s rings (that’s 2%), the researchers were able to estimate the age of the rings. More precisely, it would be only 400 million years old. By extrapolation, sharks appeared about 50 million years before the rings of Saturn.

Now the problem is that no one can say exactly how they were formed. And what is even more interesting, scientists were able to observe how ice particles are attracted to Saturn. Essentially, the planet has a slow, steady rain of ice that originates in the aforementioned rings. Having also calculated the rate at which ice falls on Saturn, American astrophysicists determined that the rings will disappear in about 100 million years.

In a sense, we could say that we caught a rare moment in the history of a planet or solar system when we were contemporaneous with some of these rings. Look, I also gave you a reason to be happy today!

The oldest human traces discovered in Germany are about 300,000 years old

The Palaeolithic site of Schöningen, Germany, became famous in 1994 when some of the oldest wooden spears in human history were discovered there. They were originally thought to be around 400,000 years old, but were later confirmed to be “only” 300,000 – 337,000 years old.

However, recent excavations have provided another reason why this site is exponential in Paleolithic research in northern Europe. These are traces left by humans about 300,000 years ago, about the same period as the mentioned spears.

The footprints were discovered among dozens of fossilized animal tracks at a site that was once at the edge of a lake. Interestingly, they do not belong to the group of hunters, as one might think at first glance. Basically, it was an area where animals came to water.

Rather, they belong to the family. Of the three separate sets of footprints, two belong to young individuals, possibly even children. Considering the age of the tracks, experts say that they would belong to individuals of the species Homo heildelbergensis, the predecessor of the Neanderthal. But since the existence of this species is increasingly disputed, and H. heidelbergensis would be only a primitive form of H. neanderthalensis, we also say that they belonged to an archaic species different from Homo sapiens.

In addition to the human tracks, which are obviously the most impressive of all the equipment excavated there, specialists have also identified the tracks of some specimens of Palaeoloxodon antiquus, the largest species of pachyderm at the time. Then, next to them, a track that would belong to a rhinoceros of the subspecies Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis or Stephanorhinus hemitoechus.

But you don’t have to remember all these names. It is important to know that the rhino track is unique in Europe.

A country where mammoth fossils are sold for beer

Look, some enjoy footprints preserved in the soil for hundreds of thousands of years, as shown above, while others have fossils they don’t know what to do with. Well, apparently some end up being exchanged for a few bottles of beer. And no, we are not talking about the Russians. If so, substitute vodka instead of beer.

The problem we are talking about today was reported by the Mexican authorities. And if the problem reached the authorities, it is clearly not an isolated case. In fact, it is also what the local newspapers write that the destruction of paleontological sites whose fauna dates back decades, perhaps even hundreds or millions of years, has become a fairly common practice.

Fossils are not only irretrievably destroyed, many of them end up in private collections or are lost forever. There’s no doubt that the people who dig them up don’t know their value, if police in Veracruz, one of the states worst hit by the problem, say they’ve arrested people selling mammoth fossils for a few beers. bottles

In a way, Mexicans are lucky. why Because Central America was indeed a place where large herds of mammoths roamed at least 10,000 years ago. That is why their fossils are found in large numbers. But now, whatever they are, they’re still not worth more than a beer or a few pesos from tourists.

And finally, in a practice seen elsewhere, Mexican authorities shift responsibility from one to another. So far, it seems, only the press has taken a more godly stance.

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