Ancient Earth May Have Sported a Different Hue (IMAGE)
Caption
When haze built up in the atmosphere of Archean Earth, the young planet might have looked like this artist's interpretation -- a pale orange dot. A team led by Goddard scientists thinks the haze was self-limiting, cooling the surface by about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Kelvins) -- not enough to cause runaway glaciation. The team's modeling suggests that atmospheric haze might be helpful for identifying earthlike exoplanets that could be habitable.
Credit
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Francis Reddy
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