Sentences with phrase «cold planet billions»

Not exact matches

New measurements of atmospheric loss by NASA's MAVEN probe should help scientists determine how a planet with rushing water and a temperate climate a few billion years ago transformed into a cold, dry desert.

Extensive systems of fossilised riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about 4 billion years ago, according to UCL - led research.

Such tugs may have shifted the orbits of the outer planets in our own solar system billions of years ago — perhaps even kicking a now - lost world into the cold depths of space in the process.

Giegengack noted that the history the last one billion years on the planet reveals «only about 5 % of that time has been characterized by conditions on Earth that were so cold that the poles could support masses of permanent ice.»

In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years.

'' «In fact, when carbon dioxide levels were over 10 times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half - billion years,» Patterson said.»