Air bubbles within a deep ice core drilled in Antarctica could reveal why Earth suddenly began to experience longer ice ages nearly 1 million years ago.

Deep beneath the icy expanse of Antarctica lies a 9,186-foot-long ice core, a time capsule from 1.2 million years ago, holding mysteries of our planet's past.

Led by The Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council of Italy (ISP-CNR), the scientists worked for more than 200 days, drilling into the ice and processing the ice core at a remote site in East Antarctica called Little Dome C, with a balmy average summer temperature of -31 degrees Fahrenheit (-35 degrees Celsius).