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Milky Way's Spiral Arms Could Not Have Caused Climate Change

KentuckyFC writes "One of the puzzles of Earth's climate history is an apparent 140-million-year cycle in the climate record. Various astronomers think this can be explained by the passage of the Sun through the spiral arms of the Milky Way, which also seems to have had a period of about 140 million years. The thinking is that in regions of denser star populations, supernovas would have been more common, bathing the Earth in cosmic rays more often. These cosmic rays would then have seeded the formation of clouds that cool the planet. But in recent years, astronomers have mapped out the structure of the galaxy in much more detail. And now a pair of US astronomers have reanalyzed this climate change idea in light of the new evidence. Their conclusion is that the climate change cycle cannot possibly have coincided with the movement of the Sun through the spiral arms. So whatever caused the 140-million-year climate change cycle on Earth, it wasn't the Sun's passage through the galaxy."

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Heh by Kingrames · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the very technical (and long-winded) explanation for something along the lines of "We are telling you, Miss Daisy, that your cat was not put into that tree by giant ninja robots from outer space."

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    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  2. Hold on there, Wilbur by uassholes · · Score: 2, Funny
    I took a look at it: http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.2777

    They're jumping to conclusions. It will be 140 million years before we have enough data to decide.

  3. You know what this means? by Kenja · · Score: 2, Funny

    It must be the unicorns fault!

    I mean... it cant be us. Right?

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    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  4. the actual cause of global warming. by Cr0vv · · Score: 2, Funny

    The actual cause of global warming, is a planet in the solar system that Nasa warned us about in 1983 (Washington Post) but was quickly repressed by the Government. Since then, the planet has progressed in it's sling orbit through our solar system. Currently, it resides just north of the Sun's south pole near the ecliptic. It's a magnetic brown dwarf with unusual moon swirls in 2 "tails", which is why ancient cultures depicted it as a winged planet. It's a magnetic powerhouse, which is why the Sun is uncharacteristically sunspot/activity quiet now -- the interloping planet has it's north pole pointing at the sun. The magma of the Earth is very responsive to a magnetic field; it roils due to the magnetic influence of this planet causing the Earth's crust to heat up -- hence, Global Warming. That simple. Don't look for the evidence of this in normal news channels, they are not allowed to report on this, neither are the astronauts or the astronomical observatories. Crow.