Long Burn

On Galactic Spiral Arms, Cosmic Rays and Ice-Age Epochs on Earth

Here's a seminar we will have at the University of Copenhagen next week. Titles (above) and abstracts (see below) like this make my brain salivate.

Recent evidence suggests that changes in the galactic cosmic ray flux are affecting the global climate. I will show here that the cosmic ray flux-climate connection appears to exist also on geological time scales. In particular, the cosmic ray flux variability arising from our passages through the Milky Way's spiral arms seems to be responsible for the periodic appearance of ice-age epochs on Earth every 150 million years, while on longer time scales, glacial activity correlates with the Milky Way star formation history. I will discuss the ample evidence which supports this picture, the possible relation to the demise of the dinosaurs, and the trillion dollar question of global warming, as well as other seemingly unrelated topics.

posted by Matt_J @ 1:16 PM