Mysterious circles are mysterious patterns of bare earth, often surrounded by herbs and other vegetation. It takes its name from fairy circles, which were originally found in Europe and were often surrounded by mushrooms. The origin of these circles has been debated for decades, but a new study suggests they may exist in many more places than we previously thought.

These natural environments were thought to exist only in the Namib Desert and the Australian Outback. But a new study shows that they can be found in 15 different countries on three continents. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)This suggests that there may be as many as 263 mysterious apartment sites worldwide.

However, research information is not 100 percent proven yet. That’s because researchers used artificial intelligence to scan various satellite images of the world, looking for anything similar to the fairy circles found in Australia and the Namib desert. Common areas where these environments can be found include Namibia, the Western Sahara Desert, the Horn of Africa in the east, the island of Madagascar, southwestern Asia, and central Australia.

Understanding the different environments in which these fairy circles exist can also help us determine their origins, and these preliminary studies have given us a good direction for research. According to previous research, the mysterious rings found in the Namib desert are caused by sand termites, and the evidence so far supports this idea.

Of course, there are other possible explanations, depending on who you ask. Perhaps these fairy rings are the result of something supernatural, as many believe the mushroom-lined European circles were. Although unlikely, it’s at least a romantic idea to think of them that way. But science, at least for now, seems to suggest that sand termites are responsible for these intriguing natural formations. Source