Posted on 08/02/2005 4:00:39 PM PDT by Graybeard58
It might sound preposterous, like astrology, to suggest that galactic events help determine when North America is or isn't buried under immense sheets of ice taller than skyscrapers. But new research suggests the coming and going of major ice ages might result partly from our solar system's passage through immense, snakelike clouds of exploding stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
Resembling the curved contrails of a whirling Fourth of July pinwheel, the Milky Way's spiral arms are clouds of stars rich in supernovas, or exploding stars. Supernovas emit showers of charged particles called cosmic rays.
Theorists have proposed that when our solar system passes through a spiral arm, the cosmic rays fall to Earth and knock electrons off atoms in the atmosphere, making them electrically charged, or ionized. Since opposite electrical charges attract each other, the positively charged ionized particles attract the negatively charged portion of water vapor, thus forming large droplets in the form of low-lying clouds. In turn, the clouds cool the climate and trigger an ice age -- or so theorists suggest.
In that regard, researchers are finding correlations between the timing of Earth's ice ages and epochs when our solar system passed through galactic spiral arms.
The latest evidence appears in a recent issue of Astrophysical Journal. The article is the result of an unusual collaboration between an astronomer, Professor Douglas Gies of Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, and a 16-year-old student at Grady High School in Atlanta, John Helsel. They report the results of their effort to determine how the sun has moved through the galaxy over the last half-billion years.
By making a variety of assumptions about the rate of solar motion and the distribution of spiral arms in the galaxy -- which are difficult to map because galactic dust and foreground stars get in the way -- Gies and Helsel conclude that "the sun has traversed four spiral arms at times that appear to correspond well with long-duration cold periods on Earth."
"This," they continue, "supports the idea that extended exposure to the higher cosmic-ray flux associated with spiral arms can lead to increased cloud cover and long ice age epochs on Earth."
Gies and Helsel's article is the long-term result of a project that Helsel began working on "as a science fair project," Gies says. Gies, 50, is a neighbor of Helsel's. Gies had previously "developed a scheme to model the motion of some massive stars in the galaxy," and when Helsel approached him for guidance on the science fair project, their "conversation quickly focused on studying the sun's motion and encounters with spiral arms in the galaxy."
A veteran investigator of the galaxy-ice age hypothesis is astrophysicist and assistant professor Nir Shaviv, 33, of Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology. He has reanalyzed other scientists' previously published data on meteorites, which contain mildly radioactive isotopes -- fragments of atoms that were altered by cosmic-ray bombardments over millions of years while the meteorite was still hurtling through space. Based on the ages of different isotopes, he concludes the cosmic-ray bombardments were most intense during past epochs when Earth is believed to have passed through known spiral arms.
An alternate but related hypothesis of ice ages suggests that Earth occasionally passes through huge interstellar clouds of hydrogen gas. Such clouds are common in the spiral arms. According to this hypothesis, the interstellar clouds chemically soak up oxygen molecules in Earth's atmosphere, dramatically lowering the levels of the gas ozone, which normally heats the atmosphere by trapping infrared radiation.
Let me be the first:
Still, Bush's fault.
Sounds a little bit like Velikovsky's theory, which mainstream science would never admit.
It just goes to show that there are so many little understood processes going on that we can't make a firm determination.
I assume you do.
Too much reading for now. But thanks for the link.
sounds more like the GOD theory too me, also something mainstream science would never admit
It's one of those interdisciplinary theories that only experts can parse successfully. I read through Carl Sagan's critique of Velikovsky, and I have my doubts about both sides. Just this week, cosmology has been turned on its head because the comet that had a probe smash into it turned out not to be a big ball of ice. Some of Velikovsky's predictions proved to be true, but I think most of it has been debunked.
I think it's possible the Russians were keenly interested in Velikovsky, which is why they sent so many probes to Venus rather than Mars.
This particular side of Velikovsky had to do with his theory that Noah's flood was caused by the earth going through the tail of a comet and all the water precipitation that resulted, which is probably not the case.
All I can say is, I'm fascinated. The more I read, the more I learn. And I prefer to pick up both sides of a controversy before I come to any conclusions. Since I'm not a geologist nor cosmologist, it takes me longer.
I'm not scientist, but I've read enough rebuttal material because of my initial interest in his publications to now think that he was wrong.
Nothing wrong in floating new ideas. Einstein surely did. But let them sink or float based on their merits.
And largely, I think that is what has happened.
Yep. It was more than 30 years ago that I heard his theory, my dad read the book. One thing I appreciated about it was that it opened my mind at an early age. But there is enough hokiness in the theory for it to be discarded, mostly.
Some of his stuff is VERY intriguing, though. For instance, I think he was the first to point out that all the ancient calendars had 360 days. His premise was that it wasn't that they couldn't count but that the earth took 360 days to revolve around the sun at the time. I wonder if he was onto something. So I keep my ears tuned to stuff that might have bearing in his theory and keep mulling it over...
When I look at both sides of Van Danniken's theory, I see he was pretty full of horse manure. There was a great video that rips his theory to shreds, I can't remember the name of it.
Since I was the one who posted the original comment, I'll presume you intended your response for me.
The GOD stuff is something I have spent considerable time investigating, and it is completely different because one can come to a conclusion without being an expert.
The best book I read on the subject was "Jesus: God, Ghost or Guru?" by Buell & Hyder. It's out of print. I guess the best alternative would be "The Case for Christ" by Strobel.
There is a growing number of scientists who see evidence of a creator in our creation, and many have accepted Christ. When I look through the creation/evolution/abiogenesis threads, it's easy to see that Scientism is just another religion, albeit a rather sophisticated one.
Let me be the first.
"16-year-old student at Grady High School in Atlanta, John Helsel"
16 years old???????????
I TOLD it not to travel through the galaxy....but did it listen.....????
16 years old
Let me be the first to suggest that this kid is wasting his time in high school.
We have been discussing ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda and other idiocies:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Unfortunately my thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.
jesus - god ghost or guru is available used on amazon and i would guess other places.
following your reco, I've ordered a paper copy for $7
thanks.
cs lewis wrote about this also. I guess its a common topic.
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