{"id":190938,"date":"2024-06-10T06:24:09","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T11:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/interstellar-intruder-the-cosmic-event-that-rewrote-earths-climate-history"},"modified":"2024-06-10T06:24:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T11:24:09","slug":"interstellar-intruder-the-cosmic-event-that-rewrote-earths-climate-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/interstellar-intruder-the-cosmic-event-that-rewrote-earths-climate-history","title":{"rendered":"Interstellar Intruder: The Cosmic Event That Rewrote Earth\u2019s Climate History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/interstellar-intruder-the-cosmic-event-that-rewrote-earths-climate-history2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>New astrophysical research highlights a significant cosmic event two million years ago when the solar system passed through a dense interstellar cloud. This possibly altered Earth\u2019s climate by exposing it to enhanced cosmic radiation, supported by increased isotopes found in geological records.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Earth was a very different place around two million years ago, with our early human ancestors living alongside saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and enormous rodents. And, depending on where they were, they may have been cold: Earth had fallen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.climate.gov\/news-features\/climate-qa\/whats-coldest-earths-ever-been\">into a deep freeze<\/a>, with multiple ice ages coming and going until about 12,000 years ago. Scientists theorize that ice ages occur for a number of reasons, including the planet\u2019s tilt and rotation, shifting plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>But what if drastic changes like these are not only a result of Earth\u2019s environment, but also the sun\u2019s location in the galaxy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New astrophysical research highlights a significant cosmic event two million years ago when the solar system passed through a dense interstellar cloud. This possibly altered Earth\u2019s climate by exposing it to enhanced cosmic radiation, supported by increased isotopes found in geological records. Earth was a very different place around two million years ago, with our [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[493,1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climatology","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}