The Sun is a special star that is also the source of life for us, but from the perspective of the entire universe, it is just one of the most common stars in the group of “main sequence stars.” The process from birth to extinction is also fairly accurate. According to the report, immediately after the birth of the sun and the earth about 4 billion years ago, the sun was about 20 to 30% darker than it is today.
Then you will be in trouble. Under these conditions, the heat from the sun will be insufficient and the entire earth will freeze. However, when I examined the traces of past glaciers remaining on the earth, the earth was not cold at that time. It is even believed to have been warmer than it is now. There are various theories as to the reason. The atmosphere contained a lot of greenhouse gases, causing severe global warming, and the earth was absorbing the heat of the sun more efficiently. However, none of them was decisive. Why was the earth warm with the weak sun? This contradiction long ago is called the “dark sun paradox.”
- Dark Sun is almost 600 pages and intertwines 3 main topics: development of the H bomb by the USA, development by the Soviet Union, and the role of the atom spies (e.g. Klaus Fuchs, David Greenglass) in accelerating the Soviet programme. Each of these 3 could have been a book in its own right.
- Dark Sun (and the Rising Telepaths) is a Finnish psychedelic space rock band formed in 1991. Dark Sun bass player Santtu has started a new new solo project called Astral Magic! His stuff will be added to this site when available.
A research group led by Kazumi Ozaki, a researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology, found a way to solve this paradox by computer calculation. If two types of bacteria that perform special photosynthesis coexist in the sea at that time, a lot of methane gas, which has a high greenhouse effect that raises the temperature, will be generated, and even the weak sun can warm the earth.
Dark Sun is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Set on the desert world of Athas, Dark Sun is about the struggle for survival. Nine city-states cling to life in the Tablelands. Until recently, they were ruled by powerful Sorcerer-Kings, both tyrants and protectors. Now, only five remain; the other cities are cast.
Mr. Ozaki and his colleagues paid attention to “hydrogen-utilizing photosynthetic bacteria” and “iron oxide photosynthetic bacteria”. Photosynthesis is described as a reaction in which plants use the energy of light to produce nutrients and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. This reaction requires “electrons” to carry electricity, and water is used as a source of electrons. “Hydrogen-utilizing photosynthetic bacteria” and “iron oxide photosynthetic bacteria” use hydrogen and iron instead of water as the source of electrons. Oxygen is not emitted in this photosynthesis. It is believed that the earth’s oxygen has increased since the advent of normal photosynthetic bacteria, so these two types of bacteria make sense in that respect.
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Computers have solved mathematical formulas that describe marine microbial ecosystems, atmospheric chemical reactions, and global climate change. As a result, it was found that if carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, is more than 50 times the current amount, the greenhouse effect of methane will be added to it, and the earth will be warmed. The synergistic effect of the two bacteria that coexist in the sea results in a significant increase in atmospheric methane concentration. Even if the sun is weak, the earth doesn’t have to be frozen anymore. A powerful option was born to solve the dark sun paradox.
One of the reasons why the climate of the past has aroused the interest of researchers is that there is a theory of “two kinds of earth”. It is said that there can be two types of climate on the earth, “warm earth” and “cold earth”, even if the heat coming from the sun is the same. And which of them will be realized depends on the past state. If the earth in the past was a “cold earth” that freezes as a whole, it may not be possible to move to the state of a “warm earth” even if the sun powers up as it is now. The climate of the earth has such a property in the first place.
About 650 million years ago, the entire earth was covered with ice, but in reality, it has escaped from it. Besides, the climate of the earth is a complicated system that needs to consider the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere, and the story is not so simple. Recently, there is a theory that we should consider “three kinds of earth” including the current state where glaciers exist in a part of the earth. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Earth is trailing the history of past climates.
Why is the present earth in this state? It can be said that the research by Mr. Ozaki et al., Who explored the ancient global environment, gives a new perspective to this fundamental question and encourages reconsideration of the existence conditions of extraterrestrial life.
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- The University of Tokyo Press Release “Primitive microbial ecosystems held the key to the formation of a warm early global environment — elucidating the mechanism for solving the” dark sun paradox “-“