Scientists inch closer to learning the mystery of Namibia’s ‘fairy circles’

Aliens? Termites? Some other insidious toxin? For decades, eerie shapes across the country’s desert have left experts baffled. Kasha Patel finds out why they could be close to solving it

The circles comprise of complex mathematical patterns not often found in nature (Stephan Getzin/The Washington Post)

The origins of eerily perfect circles in the eastern Namib desert have puzzled scientists for decades. The circles, seen as patches of bare soil on otherwise arid and grassy terrain, appear equidistant to one another, as if someone methodically took a cookie cutter to the ground.

Satellite imagery shows there could be millions of these “fairy circles” in the area, but scientists have debated what could explain the existence of even one, which can span up to 20m in diameter. Perhaps termites are chomping at the plant roots? Maybe the grasses are somehow creating the patterns? Or a toxin has decimated the soil? Or maybe aliens are sizing up the desert as a potential landing spot (spoiler: it’s never aliens)?

“There must be very strongly ordering forces behind the creation of these patterns, because otherwise it would be much more noisy, much less order,” says Stephan Getzin, who is a desert ecologist at the University of Göttingen and has published numerous papers on these circles. “That’s the fascination about the fairy circles.”