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With oxygen – the elixir of life - being omnipresent on Earth, it is impossible to imagine our world and life without it.

The life-sustaining gas in today's time constitutes nearly 21 per cent of the atmosphere of Earth and plays an important role in the survival of many species. However, the oxygen was not always present on Earth from the beginning.

When the planet came into existence nearly 4.5 billion years ago, the conditions on Earth were extremely different. Water vapour, methane and carbon dioxide were dominant in the atmosphere of the Earth.

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And now scientists have predicted that the atmosphere of Earth in future will go back to the one that is low in oxygen.

A study, which was published in Nature, described the scenario when it will take place. However, such a scenario is likely to occur billion years away, however, when the change occurs, it will occur fairly rapidly.

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Earth to go back to its birth state

The study stated that the shift will take back Earth to the kind of state it was in before which was called as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) nearly 2.4 billion years ago, stated the study.

The research has been in discussion as scientists are trying to find habitable planets outside the Solar System. It stated that atmospheric oxygen is not likely to be a permanent feature of all habitable worlds.

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"The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme. We're talking around a million times less oxygen than there is today," stated Chris Reinhard, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, while speaking to New Scientist.

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Scientists, who gave predictions regarding the doomsday scenario, stated, "The model projects that a deoxygenation of the atmosphere, with atmospheric O2 dropping sharply to levels reminiscent of the Archaean Earth, will most probably be triggered before the inception of moist greenhouse conditions in Earth's climate system and before the extensive loss of surface water from the atmosphere."

Detailed models of the atmosphere of the Earth were created by the researchers and changes in the Sun's brightness and the corresponding drop in the levels of carbon dioxide was analysed.

Less carbon dioxide means there are fewer photosynthesising organisms such as plants, which eventually results in less oxygen.

(With inputs from agencies)