According to Milankovitch’s theory (1941), the large climatic changes of the past are due to the variations of the Earth’s orbit and its axis of rotation, resulting from the gravitational attraction of the other planets and the Moon.
AstroMeso / AstroGeo
These variations can be traced over millions of years (Ma) in sedimentary records. As the solar system motion is chaotic, it is not possible to retreive the precise orbital movement of the planets beyond 60 Ma. The ANR AstroMeso and ERC AstroGeo projects aim to break this predictability horizon and to provide the basis for an astronomical solution over a large part of geological time. This will be possible by using the input geological data, in order to constrain the astronomical solution.
