What did Earth look like X million years ago?
dinosaurpictures.org
What did Earth look like X million years ago?
1–10 of 78 posts
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#2How do we know the geography of so long ago?
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#3Somewhere outside the Schwarzschild radius of every black hole is a region in which the path of incoming photons is 'bent' 180 degrees and they are sent back roughly in the direction from which they came.
In my mind this means that some infinitesimally small portion of the photons that fall on the earth every day were reflected from the earth ~50K years ago and sent in the direction of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
I sometimes wonder if we could build a telescope large enough to resolve these photons into an image of the earth from that time. This would likely require 5,000 years of technological development and construction, but it does seem like it's physically possible. (Maybe there's too much dust or distortion or background noise to actually pick out the signal, dunno)
We couldn't go back XXX million years, but maybe XX thousand?
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#4How do we know the geography of so long ago?
Plate tectonics and Continental drift ??
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#5Somewhere outside the Schwarzschild radius of every black hole is a region in which the path of incoming photons is 'bent' 180 degrees and they are sent back roughly in the direction from which they came. In my mind this means that some infinitesimally small portion of the photons that fall on the earth every day were reflected from the earth ~50K years ago and sent in the direction of the black hole at the center of…
I have followed the same idea regarding radio waves. Would it be possible to travel far enough out to receive radio or TV broadcasts from WWII? Presumably all that information in the form of waves is still out there (assuming it hasn't been too distorted by inference, or far too small of an amplitude).
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#6I had no idea flowers evolved so late. The first flowers were 100 million years after the first dinosaurs!
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#7Has anyone made a large-format map (or better yet: globe) across which one can scroll to past geographic and political maps?
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#8Somewhere outside the Schwarzschild radius of every black hole is a region in which the path of incoming photons is 'bent' 180 degrees and they are sent back roughly in the direction from which they came. In my mind this means that some infinitesimally small portion of the photons that fall on the earth every day were reflected from the earth ~50K years ago and sent in the direction of the black hole at the center of…
I have followed the same idea regarding radio waves. Would it be possible to travel far enough out to receive radio or TV broadcasts from WWII? Presumably all that information in the form of waves is still out there (assuming it hasn't been too distorted by inference, or far too small of an amplitude).
No, because you can't catch up with radio waves since they are going the speed of light.
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#9When I was a kid I had a wonderful collection of magazines called "Prehistoric Zoobooks." https://www.google.com/search?q=prehistoric+zoobooks&client=... Each one in the series described an era of life on Earth from the beginning to now, with fantastic illustrations. I used to read them from beginning to end over and over again. I really want to find something similar for my kids ideally with modern reconstructions, but can't find anything comparable. Any recommendations?
Re: What did Earth look like X million years ago?
#10I had no idea flowers evolved so late. The first flowers were 100 million years after the first dinosaurs!
The majority of flora we see now also evolved very late. The dinosaurs probably saw and fed on Conifers, Cycadophytes and Ferns. Grass and Modern leafed flora evolved much later.