(Sorry - thought I was at GLP for a moment there.)

Did Clouds in Space Cause Snowball Earth?

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I don't see how destroying the ozone would lead to global glaciation.

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Perhaps this will help:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...tinctions.html

It seems counterintuitive, wouldn't more radiation reaching the planet result in higher temperatures? I can buy the idea of the ozone layer being torn apart in a dense cloud, but isn't an ozone hole currently believed to be the result of global warming causing ozone depletion?

It would seem to me that the iceball would need the alignment of a couple different things, not the least of which is an ice age, which we now believe is tied more closely to the solar cycle. If a bad ice age triggered by a long Maunder minimum were enhanced by a dense cloud further scattering radiant energy from the sun were supposed, I could buy that, but the ozone thing strikes me as a red herring.

Oh...clouds...that's a relief. I thought you said clowns.

I read somewhere that snowballs occur when the Earth's continents are aligned along the equator, dividing the ocean into two giant landlocked seas. If that's true, Occam's Razor says we should stick with this theory before introducing hypothetical clouds of gas and dust.

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Like Eroica I'm skeptical, there are other theories regarding global cooling.

A question I would want answered is: where is this cloud of dust now? I can't see all of this devastating galactic fog being swept up by the solar system so it should be hanging around somewhere.

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The big problem with this hypothesis is that the solar wind would sweep away this dust out to the heliopause, which is beyond Pluto. Even if our solar system did pass through a giant molecular dust cloud (it probably did many times during its 4.5 billion year history), none of that dust would come between the Sun and the Earth.

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Arggh... The ozone layer and global warming/cooling are not related! :roll:

Here we go again...

Correction. They are not cause and effect related. They are probably related because a third item, or items, is affecting both.

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Killer space clouds destroy life on Earth!

...man, if this ain't enough to get 'em to outlaw White Castle, nothing is... 8-[

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cyswxman
Bad Master

I don't see how destroying the ozone would lead to global glaciation.

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My understanding is if the ozne is depleting then the UV factor increases at ground level thus creating hotter suface reflection than normal.

This would effect the rate of melt and hence more water, more water increases the rate of melt further.

At least thats how I see the connection.

The ozone is getting worse due to both solar storms and the man made factor.

Welcome to the board Minbari

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frogesque
Bad Master

Thank you, its a pleasure to post for the 1st time

Imagine what it would be like...



Think of the children!!

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Yeah, but they're presupposing a fairly dense cloud capable of overcoming the outward pressure of the solar wind. The distance to the heliopause is partially affected by the density of the interstellar medium its pressing against.

Wouldn't the relative speed of the solar system and the cloud effect how much of it would get to the earth.