Milutin Milankovich. Portrait of Milutin Milankov- ich (1879-1958), Yugoslav geologist. Milankovich or Milankovitch, followed on from the work of Croll for 30 years to try to find an astronomical explanation for the occurrence of the Ice Ages. He calculated the changes in solar radiation striking parts of the Earth due to changes in our planet's orbit and orientation. He studied the turning (precession) of the Earth's axis, the change in the angle that the equator makes with the orbital plane and the deviation from a circle (eccentricity) of Earth's orbit. It is now thought that ice ages are caused by a number of factors, limiting the usefulness of Milankovich's work.