Famous Paintings Help Study the Earth's Past Atmosphere

houghi (78078) writes "From European Geosciences Union: 'A team of Greek and German researchers has shown that the colours of sunsets painted by famous artists can be used to estimate pollution levels in the Earth's past atmosphere. In particular, the paintings reveal that ash and gas released during major volcanic eruptions scatter the different colours of sunlight, making sunsets appear more red.' The original paper can be found here. In the last 150 years, the sunsets have become redder, likely reflecting increased man-made pollution."

Comments

Stars have also gotten smaller.

[generic_screenname]

At least, according to Van Gogh.

Re:Stars have also gotten smaller.

[K. S. Kyosuke]

At least they are not rectangular anymore, as they used to be in the cubist era. Imagine the weather changes caused by a non-isotropic rotating Sun! I imagine the only reason why they didn't complain and got used to it was because WW I and the post-war depression were worse.