The faint young Sun paradox or faint young Sun problem describes the apparent contradiction between observations of liquid water early in Earth's history and the astrophysical expectation that the Sun's output would be only 70 percent as intense during that epoch as it is during the modern epoch.[1] The paradox is this: with the young Sun's output at only 70 percent of its current output, early Earth would be expected to be completely frozen, but early Earth seems to have had liquid water[2] and supported life.[3]
The issue was raised by astronomers Carl Sagan and George Mullen in 1972.[4] Proposed resolutions of this paradox have taken into account greenhouse effects, changes to planetary albedo, astrophysical influences, or combinations of these suggestions. The predominant theory is that the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide contributed most to the warming of the Earth.[5]
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