Was Earth a Migratory Planet?

Slashdot
April 18, 2012 7:17 PM
by samzenpus

Was Earth a Migratory Planet?

astroengine writes "Why our planet isn't a "snowball Earth" — a dilemma called the 'faint young sun paradox' — has foxed solar and planetary scientists for decades. Since the Earth's formation, a planet covered in ice should have stifled any kind of greenhouse effect, preventing our atmosphere from warming up and maintaining water in a liquid state. Now, David Minton of Purdue University has come up with a novel solution that, by his own admission, straddles science fact and fiction. Perhaps Earth evolved closer to the Sun and through some gravitational effect, it was pushed to a higher orbit as the Sun grew hotter. But watch out, if this is true, planetary chaos awaits."

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Dr. Art Trembanis

Associate Professor

CSHEL

109 Penny Hall

Department of Geological Sciences

The College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment

University of Delaware

Newark DE 19716

http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

302-831-2498

"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

-T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

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