Nemesis

K

Kami

Registered Senior Member
I was just perusing a copy of Richard Muller's book, Nemesis and I wondered whether or not the theory of Nemesis, a small companion star to the sun that could be the trigger of the apparently cyclical mass extictions every 26 million years, has been confirmed or disproven yet?

I looked it up on Google but there are too many star trek references to weed through. Anyone know the answer to this?

Kami
 
ive got the book, but I havent read it yet...

I do believe that it is highly disregared though. Its pretty unlikely.

Later
T
 
It hasn`t been proved either way, wither the sun could have a undiscovered companion star.

I fact most stars exist in multiple systems,. But , i think that the apparent cyclic extinction events may probably be attributed to the oscillation of the sun (like a merry-go-round ) around the galaxy. There would be consequently be random close encounters with other stars in the galaxy`s plane.

There would of course be a gravitational disruption to the oort cloud ; and the orbiting comets/rocks would migrate towards the sun.
 
Nemises

From what I've heard, someone took a Fourier Transform for the number of extinctions per year and found a peak at 26 million years. This means nothing, because when you have random noise, one period has to be stronger than all the others, because of the laws of chance.

It's more likely (in my opinion) that the close approach of different stars more or less randomly cause the extinctions instead.
 
It would not be surpising if Sol did have a companion star. Nemesis is thought that have an aphelion of 2.78 light years, and a perihelion of 0.01 light-years. Since the last mass extinction occured about 13 million years ago (Not including the one currently taking place, of course), Nemesis would currently be located anywhere between 2.3 to 2.8 light-years away from Sol. At this distance, it would be very difficult to locate the star. It would probably be a Dim-Type M star with an apparent visual magnitude of 11 to 12. It would only have been found by chance, if it had already been found.

- foadi(se) de la Ter-Rani
 
That was the issue exactly. It's not that an extinction happened once, it happens EVERY 26 million years. Geological data (i.e. craters found, layers of clay found on the ocean floor) match the acheological data (fossil record, etc.) on this.

The presence of a companion star loosely held in orbit by Sol accounts for this and gives a theory that during it's orbit it disrupts the Oort cloud and causes meteor 'rains' lasting for about a million years.

The book claims that it's postulates would be proven within the next 10-20 years, it is about 30 years old now and I haven't seen anything, I was just wondering if any else had heard more about it.
 
Originally posted by Kami
The book claims that it's postulates would be proven within the next 10-20 years, it is about 30 years old now and I haven't seen anything, I was just wondering if any else had heard more about it.
Click to expand...

I have heard nothing. The evidence, and theories of a companion star haven't changed either.

Asimov wrote a pretty cool book called Nemesis back in the eighties. That's all I can think of.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top