Abstract
THE detailed models of solar evolution now available clearly indicate that the luminosity of the Sun has been gradually increasing since it first arrived on the main sequence some 5 × 109 yr ago. If it is assumed that any changes in the orbit of the Earth during this time have been periodic—so that the present orbit is very nearly the average orbit—then it follows that the value of the solar constant has also increased correspondingly. The possibility of a resultant variation in the surface temperatures of the planets is of particular interest for the Earth, which is the only planet at present possessing a considerable quantity of water in the liquid state on its surface.
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MEADOWS, A. Surface Temperature of the Early Earth and the Nature of the Terrestrial Atmosphere. Nature 226, 927–928 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/226927a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/226927a0
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