The faint young Sun paradox or problem describes the apparent contradiction between observations of liquid water early in the Earth's history and the astrophysical expectation that the Sun's output would be only 70% as intense during that epoch as it is during the modern epoch. The issue was raised by astronomers Carl Sagan and George Mullen in 1972. Explanations of this paradox have taken into account greenhouse effects, astrophysical influences, or a combination of the two.
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Famous quotes containing the words faint, young, sun and/or paradox:
“That faint semblance of Eden, the picnic in the greenwood.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“she in the kitchen
aproned young and lovely wanting my baby
and so happy about me she burns the roast beef
and comes crying to me and I get up from my big papa chair
saying Christmas teeth! Radiant brains! Apple deaf!”
—Gregory Corso (b. 1930)
“The angels all were singing out of tune,
And hoarse with having little else to do,
Excepting to wind up the sun and moon,
Or curb a runaway young star or two,”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“...This
is the paradox of vision:
Sharp perception softens
our existence in the world.”
—Susan Griffin (b. 1943)