CSSA-KIPAC-SLAC Astrophysics Seminar: Nir Shaviv (Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem): "From Ice Ages to Dinosaurs and Politics: The Effects of Cosmic Rays on the Climate on Earth"

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that changes in the galactic cosmic ray flux reaching Earth are affecting the global climate. Here I will show that the cosmic ray flux climate connection appears to exists also on geological time scales. That is to say, the cosmic ray flux variability arising from our passages through the Milky Way's spiral arms seems to be responsible for the periodic appearance of ice-age epochs on Earth, every 150 million years. I will discuss the ample evidence which supports this picture, the possible relation to the demise of the dinosaurs, and the trillion dollar question of global warming, as well as other seemingly unrelated topics.