Using artificial intelligence, researchers have discovered mysterious “fairy circles” in hundreds of places around the world.
These unusual round plant patterns have long puzzled experts and dot the landscapes of the Namib Desert and the Australian Outback.
However, according to a new study, this unusual phenomenon may be more widespread than previously thought, and at the moment there are far more questions than answers.
The international research team trained a neural network by feeding it more than 15,000 satellite images of locations in Namibia and Australia, about half of which contained imaginary circles.
The team then used the AI system to analyze satellite observations of more than half a million one-hectare plots of land in other parts of the world. The AI has identified numerous imaginary circles at 263 land locations in 15 countries, similar to those previously identified in Namibia and Australia.
Mysterious circles around the world
These new circles are located in Africa, Madagascar, western Asia and southwestern Australia, and are mostly hot and sandy with annual rainfall ranging between 10 and 30 centimetres.
However, it is not yet known whether all of these cases stem from the same naturally occurring phenomenon.
“In every arid region of the world there are different types of arid patches caused by different processes,” Norbert Jürgens, an emeritus ecologist at the University of Hamburg, explained to the New York Times.
The subject of fairy circles remains a “controversial topic,” admitted Fernando Maestre, an ecologist at the University of Alicante in Spain.
On the one hand, there is no consensus on how to form it. Some experts believe that this is the result of underground termite activity. According to others, they are created by self-regulating plants.
Some experts have questioned whether the newly identified sites fall under the current, if somewhat loose, definition of fictional circles.
“Unfortunately, the term ‘imaginary circle’ may be out of place,” said Michael Kramer, an ecophysiologist at the University of Cape Town.
In short, the new finding adds to the mystery surrounding alien circuits, and more research will be needed to reach a consensus.
“I think the world can be complex and there can be a place for every hypothesis about the formation of fairy circles depending on the place or the moment,” said Emilio Gerado from the University of Alicante in Spain.
“They are all likely to be correct where they are written, and some of them could be collected in several places at the same time. For example, our results show that termites are more important in the Namibian belt than in Australia or the Sahel.”
“More field work is needed to provide more information and results about the composition of these interesting plant patterns,” Gerado noted.
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