According to the study published in arXiv and led by researcher Stephen Kane, Mars’ gravity strongly affects the characteristics of the Earth’s orbit and the tilt of its axis over periods extending to millions of years.

Small changes in Earth’s orbit and the tilt of its axis, driven by gravitational interactions with other planets, are known as Milankovitch cycles, and are responsible for the fluctuation between ice ages and warm periods in the planet’s history.

The research team used computer models to study the effect of changing Mars’ mass, and reached amazing results:

• Disappearance of a major climate cycle:Models have shown that when Mars was proposed to be non-existent (zero mass), a major climate cycle lasting 2.4 million years disappeared completely, proving that the mass of Mars is necessary for this long-term gravitational resonance that affects the amount of sunlight reaching Earth to occur.

• Direct impact on ice ages:The shorter cycles, around 100,000 years and marking the beginning and end of ice ages, are crucially affected by Mars’ mass: the massive it is in the simulation, the stronger and longer these cycles.

• Adjusting the rhythm of classes:The known cycle of the tilt of the Earth’s axis, which lasts 41 thousand years and controls the intensity of the seasons, changes in duration with the change in the mass of Mars. If Mars were ten times larger, this cycle would last between 45,000 and 55,000 years, radically changing the patterns of formation and melting of ice sheets on Earth.

While the study confirmed that the fixed cycle of 405 thousand years (resulting from the interaction of Venus and Jupiter) remains a fixed “metronome”, it raised Mars from a secondary role to a major partner in shaping the Earth’s climate in the very long term.

The importance of these results is not limited to understanding the history of the Earth only, but also extends to the search for habitable planets outside the solar system, as they help in assessing the stability of the climate of Earth-like planets, where a large neighbor in a suitable orbital location can create a moderate climate or cause wild climate fluctuations.

Thus, the research highlights that Earth’s climate is not only a product of its relationship with the Sun, but rather the product of a complex interaction with its neighbors in space, with an unexpected role for the planet Mars in shaping the story of our planet’s climate.

Source: ScienceAlert