Scientists have explained the influence of the history of the Sun on the Earth's climate

The movement of the Sun through dense interstellar clouds could affect the Earth's climate, and powerful flares of a young star could maintain the temperature on the planet necessary for the existence of liquid water. This was reported in the magazine on August 24. Phys.org .

Scientists at the NASA SHIELD Center have reconstructed part of this path using computer modeling. In the last few million years, the Solar system has encountered cold, dense clouds of gas and dust at least three times.

Such events could have occurred about 2-3 million, 6-7 million and 13-14 million years ago. The pressure of the interstellar medium, according to scientists, compressed the heliosphere to a size smaller than the radius of the Earth's orbit. As a result, the Earth temporarily found itself outside the usual protective shell of the Sun.

The simulation showed that the contact of the atmosphere with a dense cloud of hydrogen could increase the water vapor content and change the processes in the upper atmosphere. This, in turn, could affect surface temperature and contribute to some ancient climatic fluctuations, including periods of glaciation.

The calculations are consistent with geological findings: elements characteristic of interstellar dust were found in deep-sea sediments, Antarctic snow, and lunar soil samples corresponding to the estimated contact periods.

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The second work is devoted to the paradox of a weak young Sun. About 3 billion years ago, its luminosity was about 70% of today's. Under such conditions, according to calculations, the Earth should have been covered with ice, but geological data indicate that liquid water already existed on it.

Scientists have suggested that regular superflares could compensate for the lack of solar radiation. To test the hypothesis, the researchers reproduced the early Earth's atmosphere by mixing nitrogen, ammonia, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, after which they exposed the mixture to proton radiation.

The experiment caused the formation of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that retains heat about 300 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide. Even if only 10% of the experimentally obtained volume of this substance was preserved in the ancient atmosphere, the temperature of the equatorial regions could reach about five degrees above zero.

The authors admit that cool but frost-free conditions could also contribute to the formation of complex chains of amino acids. Both studies show that the Earth's climatic history depended not only on the processes on the planet itself, but also on changes in the Sun and its surrounding galactic environment.

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On July 24, the journal Nature Geoscience reported signs of tectonic activity on Venus. According to the publication, wide and high uplifts along the edges of the planet's rift valleys may indicate that some of the faults remain active or have stopped moving relatively recently.