from Hacker News

Every 202,500 Years, Earth Wanders in a New Direction

by montrose on 5/24/18, 10:45 AM with 51 comments

• by mkempe on 5/25/18, 2:12 AM

  The change in orbital shape was already known as one of the Milankovitch cycles [1]. This study seems to give us the most precise measurement.

  In the context of climate change, when Earth's orbit becomes more eccentric (our path over the next 200k years) seasonal changes increase in magnitude.

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles#Orbital_sh...

• by geuis on 5/25/18, 1:19 AM

  Better article with more details and a link to the relevant paper https://www.universetoday.com/139198/jupiter-and-venus-chang...

• by gwbas1c on 5/25/18, 1:25 PM

  Based on where we are in the Milankovitch cycle, should we be getting warmer or colder?

  (I keep checking the comments of this article hoping that someone knowledgable can explain how this impacts the climate.)

• by palisade on 5/25/18, 12:32 PM

  I made a thing. To wrap my head around the Milankovitch cycles. https://i.imgur.com/V3RIKL5.png

• by everdev on 5/25/18, 12:49 AM

  TLDR; Scientists believe the Earth's orbit oscillates between circular and more elliptical due to the gravitational pull from Jupiter (big) and Venus (close). It takes 405k years to complete a cycle.

• by early on 5/25/18, 2:57 PM

  Paywall articles should be banned here

• by zw123456 on 5/25/18, 1:10 AM

  The result of which is ... ?

  Does this lead to some occurrence such as a mass extinction or something of that nature?

  Seems interesting.