New research suggests that the oldest continents in our galaxy may have formed 5 billion years before Earth, indicating the possibility of alien species more evolved than our own in the Milky Way.
New research has found that the oldest continents in our galaxy may have formed 5 billion years before Earth, implying that other worlds in the Milky Way may harbor alien species much more evolved than our own. The study, led by Jane Greaves, an astronomer at Cardiff University, throws open the possibility of discovering rocky exoplanets with continents, given that neighboring Sun-like stars have already created a few potential hosts.
Plate tectonics, the movement of rock plates that float above a planet's molten interior, causes continents to develop. The heat from a planet's core prevents magma from solidifying and immobilizing continents. That heat is produced by radioactive substances in the planet's core, such as uranium-238, thorium-232, and potassium-40, which emit energy as they decay, according to LiveScience
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The oldest continents in the Milky Way may be 5 billion years older than Earth'sBriley Lewis (she/her) is a freelance science writer and Ph.D. Candidate/NSF Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles studying Astronomy & Astrophysics. Follow her on Twitter briles_34 or visit her website www.briley-lewis.com.
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