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An ice age is a long period of reducing the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, leading to the expansion of polar and continental ice caps. Scientists have long known that the Earth is going through cycles of climate change, after adjustments in its orbit, as well as geological factors. This results in periods of long-term glaciation, forcing the expansion of ice sheets to the surface.
Earth is currently in the Quaternary glaciation, an alternating series of glacial and interglacial periods that began 2.58 million years ago.
However, it was revealed during Amazon Prime's "Steps to the Future" that former NASA scientist Jerome Chappellaz was using Antarctica to better understand what would happen in the future.
The 2010 documentary revealed: "Researchers from the Grenoble Glaciology Laboratory have kept valuable archives from Arctic and Antarctic expeditions after expedition.
"The concept is very simple, the more we dig, the deeper we go in the past."
"The drill tool is equipped with a knife that pierces the ice and the chips are discharged through an endless screw.
"After weeks of drilling, the depths reached more than 3,000 meters and went back more than 250,000 years."
Dr. Chapellaz, who leads the NASA-supported project, then explained what his findings revealed.
During the same show, he detailed: "What does an ice age look like? It generally looks like the entire northern hemisphere covered with ice.
"Two kilometers of ice over Canada and the alpine glaciers have spread to Lyon.
"We could go from England to France.
"We expect these conditions to come in 40,000 to 60,000 years."
The program then explained how the scientist can predict an ice age through his understanding of space.
The narrator added, "Our distant cousins - Saturn and Jupiter – are responsible.
"These two planets are so large that their mass periodically deforms Earth's orbit, making it more elliptical.
"Since the sun is farther away, the energy we receive from it decreases.
"Earth's orbit around the sun causes the amount of energy received on the surface of the planet to change over time.
"If we take the winter snowfall in the latitudes, it will take enough energy in the summer to melt it, but if it is not strong enough, the snow will stay and form a glacier during the summer."
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