The Faint Young Sun Paradox!
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Hi, this is Emily.In 1972, Carl Sagan and a colleague discovered something that’s come to be known as thefaint young sun paradox: according to stellar physics, our sun has been growing brighterover time, thanks to increasing hydrogen fusion in the star’s core.This means that the sun that shined on early Earth was roughly 25% dimmer than today’ssun, which should have kept our baby planet cool enough for ice at the poles to grow andreflect more sunlight and cool the planet further - producing a literal snowball effectand turning Earth into a big ice cube.BUT: according to rock and fossil evidence, ancient Earth was actually a melty, warm,watery haven for life, where simple single-celled organisms developed and thrived.Hence the paradox – how could the sun be dim b...
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Hi, this is Emily.In 1972, Carl Sagan and a colleague discovered something that’s come to be known as thefaint young sun paradox: according to stellar physics, our sun has been growing brighterover time, thanks to increasing hydrogen fusion in the star’s core.This means that the sun that shined on early Earth was roughly 25% dimmer than today’ssun, which should have kept our baby planet cool enough for ice at the poles to grow andreflect more sunlight and cool the planet further - producing a literal snowball effectand turning Earth into a big ice cube.BUT: according to rock and fossil evidence, ancient Earth was actually a melty, warm,watery haven for life, where simple single-celled organisms developed and thrived.Hence the paradox – how could the sun be dim b...
