Scientists suggest that about 14 million years ago, our Sun may have passed through a large region of star formation known as the Radcliffe Wave in the Orion region. This may have influenced the climate changes that were occurring on Earth at that time.
The Sun’s Journey
Recently, an international group of scientists led by experts from the University of Vienna found that the Solar System may have experienced a cosmic event in the past that caused climate change on Earth. It’s about its passing through the so-called Radcliffe Wave.
The Sun makes one orbit around the center of the Milky Way in about 250 million years. Other stars do the same, but with different periods. And there are also waves of star formation rolling through the galaxy, causing cold gas-dust clouds to shrink and give birth to new luminaries.
One section of the Radcliffe Wave is the so-called Orion region. It is quite well visible in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth in winter. Its most prominent element is the Orion Nebula. According to the Gaia space telescope, the Solar System passed through it about 14 million years ago.
Implications for the Earth
To be precise, the Solar System passed through the Orion region between 18.2 and 11.5 million years ago, with the most likely time between 14.8 and 12.4 million years ago. Then the bright clusters NGC 1977, NGC 1980, and NGC 1981 were born there.
And it must have had some effect on the Solar System. But the only thing we can say for sure is that it passed through a section of space filled with a denser-than-usual gas. As a consequence, the heliosphere should have shrunk. In addition, a layer of radioactive rock may have formed on Earth, but it had no significant effect on life.
However, it is quite possible that cosmic events didn’t have a global impact on our planet after all. At this time, the Miocene Transition was occurring on Earth. The changeable warm climate was replaced by a cooler and flatter climate.
Of course, there are purely terrestrial explanations for this, movement of components, reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, etc. However, the study’s authors insist that there is uncertainty in the calculations, which can be well explained by changes in the interstellar medium.
According to phys.org
