Higgins and his team members collected an ice sample dated 2.6 million years ago from the Antarctic in the Allan Hills area. He claims it’s the oldest sample of ice with strong trust in the age and air within it. Through examining trace concentrations of argon gas contained within the frost, the sample was dated.

Experts hope to find the deepest ice cores drilled from the continent of Antarctica. They aim to gather samples that are as much as 1.5 million years old.

Circa 2017

Lightning is one of Earth’s most energetic events, but there’s much more to it than just a flashing fork and the rumble of thunder. Lightning strikes have been known to generate gamma rays, and now a team of Japanese researchers has found that those bursts can create photonuclear reactions in the atmosphere, resulting in the production – and annihilation – of antimatter.

Bursts of gamma rays from lightning were first detected in 1,992 thanks to NASA’s Compton Gamma-ray Observatory. Since then, these Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGF) have been studied intently, and the new research out of Kyoto University has found an unexpected cause of some of the signals.

“We already knew that thunderclouds and lightning emit gamma rays, and hypothesized that they would react in some way with the nuclei of environmental elements in the atmosphere,” says Teruaki Enoto, lead researcher on the project. “In winter, Japan’s western coastal area is ideal for observing powerful lightning and thunderstorms. So, in 2015 we started building a series of small gamma-ray detectors, and placed them in various locations along the coast.”