What caused Ice Age on Earth? New research unravels mystery of cosmic cloud. Details here
Pleistocene Epoch, known for its glaciers, wooly mammoths, and Neanderthals, ended just 12,000 years ago. Researchers now think that this cold period might have been caused by a space cloud blocking the Sun's warmth. As per the reports of 'Yahoo Entertainment', the researchers proposed that an interstellar cloud impacted the solar system about two million years ago. Earth and the other planets were forced to move outside the heliosphere—the Sun's shield of charged particles. Nature Astronomy published this study.
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All we know about the research
Merav Opher, an astrophysicist at Boston University, explained in an email to 'Gizmodo' that their study is the first to show with numbers that the Sun had an encounter with something from outside the solar system, which affected Earth's climate, as reported by Yahoo entertainment. Opher said that the team is still using modern climate models to measure the impact, but they believe that an increase in hydrogen and dust could have caused Earth to enter an Ice Age.
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Based on HI4PI survey data, Opher’s research team calculated that between 2 and 3 million years ago, our solar system may have passed through the Local Ribbon of Cold Clouds in the Lynx constellation. About 2.6 million years ago, the Pleistocene began. Although the exact cause of the ice age cannot be determined, additional data regarding the influence of clouds on the heliosphere may provide insight into the potential effects on Earth.
