Since the commencement of story , humans have made government note of important galactic events . This is very useful for allowing archaeologists to engagement events on the nose . And a new find now provide researchers with another astronomical dick for archaeology : solar storms .
Archaeologists from the University of Oxford have discovered that the effect of solar storm in the standard atmosphere can be appraise in Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree band , which take into account for a more accurate approximation of date . So far two date of suspected solar storms have been set with this technique , 775 CE and 994 CE , with samples supporting the musical theme find oneself in Germany , Russia , the US , and New Zealand
The discipline , publish inProceeding of the Royal Society A , is an extension of carbon date . Most of the carbon in the world is made of six protons , six neutrons , and six electrons , but charged particles tally the atmosphere creates carbon-14 ( C-14 ) , which has eight neutrons . Every exist creature on Earth has a sure proportion of carbon-14 in its body and C-14 is radioactive .
Once an being dies , the carbon paper - cycle stops so the C-14 in its body but sits there and begins to grow into atomic number 7 . By measuring the amount of C-14 in a sample , archaeologists can leave a date with an dubiety of about 50 to 100 years .
During solar storms , the Sun hits Earth with a lot more up-and-coming particle , so the production of C-14 is increased . plant and trees absorb the C-14 from the atmosphere and this results in tree ring that have at least 20 times more C-14 than usual .
" mutant in atmospheric carbon 14 concentration are largely the result of carbon dioxide emissions from activity from vent and the ocean , but they are also influenced by changes in solar action , ” say lead author Dr Michael Dee in astatement .
“ The spikes in 775 and 994 AD were almost vertical and of comparable order of magnitude all around the Earth . Such marker can be easily identified in known - long time tree diagram - rings and are fixed in sentence . ”
This kind of key signature could potentially be found in papyrus reed , tone , and other plant material , and it could allow the syncing of the Mayan calendar to the Gregorian calendar , and make signified of the “ floating chronologies ” of ancient Egypt .
“ In the past times , we have had be adrift estimates of when things may have happened , but these hush-hush alfilaria could reset chronologies touch on important humankind civilisations with the potential to date events that bechance many thousands of year ago to the exact year , " Dee say .
