Space & Astronomy

A mysterious cosmic phenomenon once engulfed our solar system

By T.K. Randall
March 11, 2025 ·  0 comments

A unique cosmic rendezvous may have impacted our planet. Image Credit: ESA / NASA According to a new study, approximately 14 million years ago our solar system was entirely engulfed by a huge cosmic structure measuring some 9,000 light-years across.

Filled with stars, gas and dust, this galactic "wave" passed straight through our cosmic neighborhood, engulfing the Earth and all the other planets as it came through.

To determine this, University of Vienna doctoral student Efrem Maconi, and colleagues, looked at data from the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope to analyze how the wave was moving.

This enabled them to extrapolate when it likely passed through our solar system.14 million years ago sounds like a long time, but it was actually relatively recent (the dinosaurs went extinct around 66 million years ago).

If any animals had happened to look up at the night sky during that time, they would have seen the stars dimmed, as though partially obscured by fog.

Scientists now believe that the wave may have even contributed to a period of climate cooling that occurred during the Middle Miocene epoch, though this has yet to be confirmed.

Even so, it remains to be seen just what an impact this cosmic rendezvous may have had.

Source: Futurism | Comments (0)

Tags: Solar System