Evidence For a Major Solar System Encounter 3 Million Years Ago

I have imagined many things, but never have I imagined heliosphere collapse.

"We still don't know", "No one knows", ... I hear these a lot in your videos. But then that's the great thing about science.... honesty.

The heliosphere going down to 0.4 AU is mindblowing. Great finds and thanks for the summary Anton!

Going through a cloud of helium doesn't sound too bad, but going through a cloud of plutonium doesn't sound so good.

Dang, I have speculated for years that the universal environment has to impact the climate of Earth. Perhaps periodically as we orbit the galaxy and perhaps randomly also as our galaxy goes through it's own cycles. Very cool that people are looking into this type of occurrence.

Heliosphere collapse and dust clouds passing through the solar system is an interesting idea. Many years ago I wondered why photosynthesis evolved three times. (There are three major metabolic pathways by which photosynthesis is carried out: C3 photosynthesis, C4 photosynthesis, and CAM photosynthesis) Wikipedia. These systems did not evolve at the same time and are sensitive to different wave lenghts, indicating that the climate or the sun light changed in some way. And this change could be caused by interstellar dust passing through the solar system. Likewise the Cambrian explosion indicates something like a smaller increase in radiation causing more mutations and the evolution of multicellular life.

There was a Patrick Moore 'Sky at Night' programme about this forty years ago ! I had the BBC TV script.

The words “dense” and “thick” are still describing a gas density equivalent to such a hard vacuum that it could not be produced on earth.

Outstanding review on the latest science story as always Anton. Wonderful video by our favorite Wonderful Person 😊.

How science works. observe, verify, develop hypothesis, attempt to prove, or disprove it. Thank you, Anton!

Politicians can now Institute a solar wind tax on their population's to negate the effects of solar winds on Earth's climate and prevent a heliosphere collapse.😅

Our path through the galaxy will change things for sure.

This is my first time commenting. Thanks for your channel. It seems feasible that the period of our (heliosphere, solar system, earth) collective passing through the hydrogen cloud could have caused the ~1 million year period of the "snowball earth", the cause of which seems unknown. Also, it occurs to me that one of the most fundamental reasons for life to flourish here in earth is the lack of interstellar radiation. In my opinion, the "Goldilocks" planet everyone is searching for had better have some sort of heliosphere or some type of radiation shield. Hope these musings are thoughtful, if not contributive. Thank you Anton for making us smarter.

You are amazing! If I was your grandmother I would talk about you all the time. Thank you for sharing!

Just a mild correction. The ice age we are in started around 34 million years ago. We are in the Late Cenozoic Ice Age. Within that ice age we have periods of greater or lesser glaciation, each on their own cycles, and while we did enter a period of more intense glaciation around 2-3 million years ago, even that was more mild than the period we entered around 700 thousand years ago with the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.

I heard something like this years ago- that sometimes our Solar system is travelling through colder parts of the Galaxy- can cause Ice Ages. I suppose the opposite would be true too. Thanks for your Posts. xxx

The interstellar medium consists of ancient gas clouds that move at very fast speeds, sometimes creating shock waves and can lead to the formation of new star systems and planets. Heliopause - protective layer of the solar system created by pressure from the solar wind. About 2-3 million years ago, the solar system may have interacted with a dense cloud, which could change the size of the heliopause and leave chemical traces such as iron 60 on Earth. Currently, there are no clear conclusions about the impact of these changes on Earth's climate, but they are likely to cause changes in the ozone layer and other chemical reactions.

Another great video, thank you, Anton. Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

WoW! So many people are studying so many things! Thanks, Anton, for summing it all up for us! Btw, I can't wait to see your smile at the end of each video!! 😊❤🎉

There is nothing faster in space than sweeping and zooming artistic renditions.