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Published online 9 February 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050207-12

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Did stardust trigger snowball Earth?

Clouds of interstellar molecules may have plunged our planet into a deep freeze.

Our planet may have frozen over in the past as it drifted though giant dust clouds in space. The result of the dust-bath would have been an almost complete overcoat of ice for the world, according to a new theory.

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