New research has revealed that approx two million years agothe Solar System went through a dense interstellar cloud of gas, dramatically affecting the Earth’s climate. This surprising result was published in the journal Nature Astronomy from the Boston University research group led by Merav Opher.
The Earth’s Climate Past
The climate of our planet is constantly changing. For example, several glacial periods have followed one another throughout Earth’s history, the last of which ended around 12,000 years ago. The causes of these climate variations have traditionally been attributed to internal factors, such as volcanic activity, and external factors, such as variations in solar activity.
The recent discovery introduces a third category of causes: the influence of the Solar System’s passage through interstellar gas clouds. The Milky Way is full of these cold, hard-to-identify gas clouds. Researchers have traced the complex motions of the Sun and its neighbors, finding that approximately two million years agothe Solar System passed through one of these clouds with higher gas density.
Evidence from the Lynx Cloud
According to the authors of the research, the meeting with the cloud cold of the Lynx may have influenced the solar windthe swarm of particles that reaches the Earth from the Sun. In support of this hypothesis, an increase in isotopes of iron and plutonium, atomic variants dating back to that time, has been found. These isotopes have been found in terrestrial rocks, indicating a significant event that altered the climate.
This discovery not only provides new information about Earth’s climate evolution, but also suggests that a similar event could happen again in about a million years. Understanding these dynamics will help us better predict future climate variations and prepare accordingly.
What do you think about this discovery? Could it influence the way we perceive our role in climate protection?
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