* Astronomy

Scientists in China say they have found evidence proving that the Taklimakan Desert, the world's second-largest desert, is older than thought.
Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said their recent research found evidence the massive desert in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in the foreland basin of the Tibetan Plateau, is 1.8 million years older than previously estimated.
If the scientific findings from the academy's Institute of Geology and Geophysics hold true, the actual age of the desert would be 5.3 million years old.
The findings come after decades of research by Chinese scientists regarding the arid land that has not produced a universally accepted age for the desert. The last estimation was made in 2002 and it placed the region's age at 3.5 million years old.
The recent study followed the same approach as the earlier estimation by analysing soil samples, but the newer samples were taken from a Cenozoic Era-dated layer of the desert.

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Credit NASA

This image of the Taklimakan Desert was take by the Terra satellite in October 27, 2001.