![]() Magnetic information in both cores allowed them to be lined up-and the Arizona dates then provided a timeline for the ancient floods and droughts embedded in the east coast core.Īnd all that evidence confirmed the mathematical simulations: Jupiter and Venus do push us around, and thus slowly alter our orbit over hundreds of millennia. ![]() The zircons contain trace amounts of uranium, which decays in a predictable way-meaning the Arizona core could thus be dated based on uranium content. They compared that core with another from Arizona, embedded with zircons. They took a rock core from the east coast, which has excellent sediment records-good evidence of extreme seasonal variations. Problem is, it's been hard to verify that this oscillation between orbit shapes exists.īut Kent and his colleagues came up with a way-by boring down into the Earth. During an elliptical orbit, when the distance from the sun varies more, the differences between the seasons would be more extreme than when the orbit is virtually circular. In fact, planetary scientists have long hypothesized that Venus and Jupiter squeeze the Earth's orbit from circular to elliptical and back every 405,000 years. "And as we circle the sun, those other planets and also our moon exert effects on our orbit." "We're not alone in the solar system, there are other planets.” Dennis Kent, a geologist at Rutgers University, and Columbia's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. But other bodies also have a small say in our affairs. The sun exerts an enormous and obvious influence on the Earth, with its gravity and light.
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