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Mars is half the size Earthone tenth the mass of our planetand at its closest point track The distance is over 33 million miles. But new research highlights its extraordinary impact red planet Own our own world.
as moon’s gravity drive ocean‘tide, Marsof gravity now understood as playing play an important role in shaping the long-term climate pattern Earthincluding the conditions that triggered ice ages.
Stephen Kane, Professor of Planetary Science astrophysics exist University of CaliforniaA research project was launched after examining recent research linking changes in Earth’s climate to Mars’ weak gravitational tug.
“I know Mars has some influence on Earth, but I think it’s very small,” Professor Kane said. “I originally thought its gravitational influence would be too small to be easily observed in Earth’s geological history. I set out to test my hypothesis.”
Previous research has shown that patterns preserved in deep-sea sediments reflect long-term climate cycles believed to have been influenced by Mars, despite its small mass and great distance from Earth.
However, Professor Kane took a very different approach, performing large computer simulations of the behavior of the solar system and the long-term changes in Earth’s orbit and tilt, which control how sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface over tens of thousands to millions of years.
These cycles of orbital and position changes are known as Milankovitch cycles and are crucial to understanding how and when ice ages began and ended.
one Ice Age It was a long period of time when the Earth’s poles had permanent ice caps. The Earth has experienced five or even six major ice ages in its 4.5 billion year history. We are currently in the Quaternary Ice Age, which began 2.6 million years ago and reached its peak, or glacial maximum, during the Anglo Phase, with ice sheets stretching south to the Isles of Scilly near Cornwall and into what is now north London.
There were also smaller cycles of ice surface fluctuations during the five or six major ice ages that swept our planet and lasted for millions of years.
The team found that computer models predict Mars has a special influence on these shorter cycles – one lasting about 100,000 years and the other about 2.3 million years.