Stars have winds. A star’s motion, with its wind, creates a cocoon or a sac-an “astrosphere”-and our Sun’s cocoon is known as the heliosphere. The heliosphere shelters our solar system from the interstellar medium and its radiation known as galactic cosmic rays. Recently, geologists discovered extraterrestrial radioactive isotopes on earth that could only have come from outside our heliosphere. How and when were we exposed?
Today, Nature Astronomy published “A Possible Direct Exposure of the Earth to the Cold Dense Interstellar Medium 2-3 Myr Ago.” In this video, the lead author, Merav Opher, discusses her team’s discovery that 2-3 million years ago the heliosphere appears to have been dramatically compressed, which would have forced the Earth out of its protective sac, leaving it exposed.
The Earth’s exposure almost certainly had a substantial impact on our planet and its climate. This research indicates that there is good reason to explore whether this expulsion from the heliosphere affected the Earth’s ancient climate. This could well be the explanation for a range of phenomena, including ice ages, diversification of species, and the extinction of dinosaurs.
Негізгі бет Earth Forced from the Protective Heliosphere: What Do We know?
Пікірлер