A researcher has figured out that the Earth’s first continent was formed 3bn years ago, in a new paper that sheds fresh light on the early stages of the planet’s life. Jane Greaves, an astronomy professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University in Wales, was examining continent formation on distant stars and planets. It is thought that exoplanets with continents that formed in a similar way to Earth’s are more likely to be habitable, and perhaps even contain alien life. In the process, she calculated when several distant planets’ continents were born, as well as those a little closer to home. Continents on Earth sit on top of the planet’s hot, viscous mantle. Heat from the inner core stops the mantle from solidifying. The reason the core is hot is because it contains radioactive elements that came from neutron star collisions billions of years ago such as forms of Uranium, Thorium and Potassium. By analysing how many materials like this are present on Earth and on other planets, we are also able to estimate when the continents formed. On Earth, that was about 9.5 billion years since the beginning of the universe. Meanwhile, in Greaves' sample, the first continents appeared 2bn years before Earth’s on the exoplanets of younger, so-called thin disk stars. Older, thick disk stars analysed in her work produced rocky planets with continents that appeared even earlier: about 4 to 5bn years before Earth’s. “The outlook seems very promising for finding rocky exoplanets with continents, given that nearby Sun-like stars have already produced a few candidate hosts,” she wrote. The study, “When were the First Exocontinents?” is published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical SocietySign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

UPDATE: Jun. 28, 2023, 5:00 a.m. EDT This story has been updated. Target is ramping

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Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk has been called out by fitness influencer Joey Swoll after filming a man's wardrobe malfunction in the gym and posting it online. The Ukrainian winger clearly has a lot of time on his hands, because he’s not been playing an awful lot for Chelsea since arriving for a whopping £89 million in January. The footballer posted a video of an older gentleman in the gym using a rowing machine. The clip alludes to a wardrobe malfunction as there’s a blurred square over the man’s shorts. The 22-year-old added the caption “?”, and it wasn’t long before Swoll took issue with his actions and uploaded a video of his own challenging the original clip. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Swoll, real name Sergo, said: "So you see that man at the gym, working hard, trying to better himself, with a trainer. ”He's in an embarrassing situation where, yes, he's a little exposed. And you decide: 'Hey, let me take a video of it to post on social media to make fun of him', all for attention. Really? Pardon my language, but what the f*** is wrong with you? You're a professional soccer player, you play for Chelsea in the Premier League! Is this really how you want to represent yourself and your team?" Swoll, who brands himself the “CEO of gym positivity” has amassed 6.7 million TikTok followers with his commentaries on so-called gym culture. However, some have questioned whether his videos are fuelling misogyny by calling out lesser-known female TikTokers and setting them up for harassment online. Mudryk, meanwhile, has struggled for game time during his first season in the Premier League after arriving in January, playing just 16 games in all competitions and scoring no goals. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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