Boston: Scientists have unraveled the mystery of the many ice ages that froze the Earth for 300 million years.
There are several theories, including the coldness of the Earth’s atmosphere, the tilt and orbit of the Earth, the movement of tectonic plates, and the eruption of volcanoes.
However, scientists at Boston University claim to have evidence of a giant cosmic cloud that blocked the Sun’s heat from reaching the Sun in the past.
Astronomer Merav Ofer explained in a new paper published in Nature Astronomy that dense cosmic clouds in the Solar System have pushed the Earth and other planets into the heliosphere. The heliosphere is a bubble around the entire planet filled with charged particles that shields the world from cosmic radiation.
Without it, Earth’s climate could change dramatically, Ofer said.
Ofer, a professor of astronomy at Boston University and a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, said this is the first paper to explain how collisions between extrasolar objects and the Solar System affect Earth’s atmosphere.
