Just one supernova explosion could trigger the great evolutionary process of living things on Earth.
Experts have come to an amazing conclusion while studying the secrets of our Universe: the explosion of a supernova close to the Earth could provoke the evolution of species on the globe. It happened 8 million years ago, and about the same time the growth of the African savannah began. For a long time, this phenomenon has bothered biologists, as they could not find an explanation for it and now they have come to the long-awaited solution of the riddle.
Savannahs are dominated by C4 grass, which appeared 20 million years ago, but there are almost no trees. This feature is explained by forest fires that raged in this area 8 million years ago, but where they came from is another question. The fire destroys the trees, but the grass recovers quickly, and the fire seems to favor the expansion of the savannahs. Scientists from the University of Washburn in Kansas have found the cause of wildfires in Africa.
Iron-60 is present in sediments at depths of water bodies, which is produced by massive stars. Its presence on Earth suggests that at least one large star, presumably a supernova, was located next to it a long time ago. A beam of cosmic rays coming from it reached the Earth and entered the lower atmosphere, hitting ionizing particles floating in the air - it is from them that lightning is formed.
It turns out that the increase in the territory of savannahs, which occurred 8 million years ago, is associated with lightning, which caused forest fires. Thus, the hominids had to evolve to adapt to life in the new environment.