The fossil footprints of those raindrops were to figure

The rain that fell 2,700 million years ago left its mark. An international team of scientists has analyzed the fossil footprints of those raindrops was to figure out how the early atmosphere of Earth.

"Precise measurements of atmospheric pressure back to 1644, when the Evangelist Torricelli invented the first barometer", tells SINC the researcher Sanjoy M. Som, University of Washington (USA). 

Contrary to popular belief, the results of the study, published this week in Nature, suggest that the atmospheric density bent not current levels. 

Som said that "if the atmosphere would have been denser, it would have slowed the fall of water droplets and the maximum size of their tracks would be smaller." 

Makes between 2,000 and 4,000 million years, the sun was between 20% and 30% softer, hence "the whole earth would have frozen if the atmosphere would have been identical to the current," says Som 

This paradox suggested a primitive atmosphere substantially thicker to provide a stronger greenhouse effect. Instead, there is geological evidence of ancient riverbeds and ocean sediments from the same period. 

At that time did not exist neither plants nor animals, but "a microbiological level, the Earth was a planet much alive," Som causes 

The author of the study concluded that these findings will help scientists search for "habitable worlds beyond the solar system." 

A tear fell on the sand 

Water droplets that have been analyzed from the rain that fell in volcanic ash between 2,700 and 11,700 million years. 

Upon contact with the surface, these tears created a dimple that was later integrated into the rocks of southern Africa have now been studied. 

The form of water droplets is dependent on atmospheric pressure. To be considered as such, its size should not grow more than seven millimeters in diameter. When they reach that extent, dissolve into smaller droplets. 

To ensure this, the researchers looked closely at the footprints left by the drops of rain fell in the Icelandic volcano ash Eyjafjalla that paralyzed European airspace in 2010.