Physics NotePublished
A Possible Explanation for Earth's Climatic Changes in the Past few Million Years
W. Wölfli; W. Baltensperger
1999
Publication details
- Authors
- W. Wölfli; W. Baltensperger
- Type
- Physics Note
- Status
- Published
- Publication date
- 1999
- Description
- The astronomical theory of Milankovitch attempts to explain the changes of the past climate of the Earth in terms of the variable solar insolation due to the quasi-periodic oscillations of Earth's orbital parameters. However, this theory causes serious problems if used to account for some major observed phenomena of the past few million years. Here, we present an alternative explanation for these phenomena. It is based on the idea that the solar system until quite recently contained an additional massive object of planetary size. This object, called Z, is assumed to have moved on a highly eccentric orbit bound to the sun. It influenced Earth's climate through a gas cloud of evaporated material. Calculations show that more than once during the last 3.2 Myr it even approached the Earth close enough to provoke a significant shift of the geographic position of the poles. The last of these shifts terminated the Earth's Ice Age epoch. The origin and fate of Z is also discussed.
- Year
- 1999
- Number
- CBPF-NF-031/99
- Linked to a thesis
- No
- Linked to a grant
- No