An asteroid may have turned ancient Earth into a snowball

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More than 600 million years ago, the planet would have been unrecognizable.

A depiction of how Earth may have looked 650 million years ago during a period when snow and ice may have covered most, if not all, of the Earth's surface and oceans. New science suggests an asteroid may have triggered this"snowball" state.: a frigid, dry air would sweep over a world of endless ice, covering almost every inch of land and sea. This state of global refrigeration, known as Snowball Earth, has happened at least twice, both times more than 600 million years ago.

“The effects of a large impact followed by global glaciation would be disastrous to complex life and could lead to the extinction of humanity,” says study authorBlock out sunlight for long enough, the planet cools and its icy areas grow. Ice reflects sunlight back into space, so as you get more of it, the planet cools further, triggering more ice formation—and if this reaches a certain icy threshold, the planet inexorably becomes a snowball.

Volcanoes have been considered prime Snowball-making suspects: perhaps they erupted too much sulfur dioxide , engendering a cooling effect—or maybe, another theory suggests, Earth once had far fewer volcanoes belching carbon dioxide into the sky,, a climate modelling expert at Yale University. But it isn’t clear if volcanoes could erupt such high quantities of sulfur dioxide quickly enough, or experience a dramatic drop in carbon dioxide output, to kickstart Snowball Earth.

A fully frosted world did not occur in the balmy pre-Industrial and Cretaceous eras under any conditions. But adding 200 billion tonnes of sulfur dioxide to a cooler version of the Neoproterozoic era, and to the“It is a hell of a lot more difficult to induce a Snowball when it’s so warm on Earth,” says Köberl. But this study suggests that when the planet is already cold, “it’s possible.”

For now, this remains a theoretical exercise. “Impacts don’t explain everything,” says Köberl. “But you’ve still got to keep an open mind,” because this study, and events like Chicxulub, demonstrate just how forcefully asteroids can change Earth’s fate.

 

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