The protective bubble around the sun retreated dramatically after colliding with a freezing interstellar cloud, leaving much of the solar system exposed to radiation that shaped our evolution, a study suggests
encountered turbulence on a galactic scale, colliding with a dense interstellar cloud that may have altered both the climate and evolution on Earth.through our galaxy, particularly in relation to the relatively dense hydrogen clouds that also journey through the interstellar medium, the vast space between star systems.
Opher says the probable encounter between the heliosphere and the cold cloud aligns with the deposition of the elements plutonium-244 and radioactive iron-60 in Antarctic ice, deep ocean cores and lunar samples. These elements, which originated in distant supernovae, are captured within interstellar clouds and were probably deposited on Earth while it was outside the heliosphere.
“The indication of an increase in these elements around 2 to 3 million years ago gives us compelling evidence that indeed the sun crossed that cloud around 2 million years ago,” says Opher. “The Earth’s exposure to cold interstellar medium clouds and the related massive increase of hydrogen in the atmosphere and increased radiation almost certainly had a substantial impact on our planet and its climate.
“The heliosphere is part of the extended environment that organisms experience on the surface of the Earth, affecting climate and incoming radiation from space,” he says. “If we were outside the heliosphere for certain periods, this could have changed the evolutionary trajectories of a broad range of organisms, including humans. Such links are highly speculative at this point, but give us a new research direction.
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