by Andy Lloyd
Such a sustained pattern of orbital change and planetary interaction with a brown dwarf within the planetary solar system would certainly have destroyed far more life on this planet than the single asteroid strike of the K/T boundary. For about 10 million years, the days of the early solar system would have been relived ― bringing about the string of extinction events at the P-Tr boundary.
This model presupposes that the perihelion distance of the Dark Star is a variable over time and, as a result, the Permian may have witnessed its closest and most devastating series of passages through the solar system. The massive asteroid or comet impact recorded by the 250 million year old crater in Woodleigh, Australia may have been part of this wider phenomenon.
The Cambrian Explosion and 'Snowball Earth'
New advances in molecular biology have allowed scientists to back-track through the record of evolutionary change and date the various points when great divergence in life on this planet occurred. The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary of 540 million years ago represented a colossal sea-change in the development of life on this planet. The sudden emergence of an immense diversity of life forms at that time is known as the Cambrian Explosion, but paleontologists now consider it likely that life was already highly variable before this boundary. The boundary itself indicates a massive carbon isotope shift, implying profound extinctions among late Proterozoic life.4 Severe cooling would have accompanied such changes as carbon dioxide was catastrophically removed from the atmosphere.
In fact, such was the severity of the glaciation during the late Proterozoic, that some scientists have theorized that our planet became completely covered in ice...the so-called “Snowball Earth” effect.17,18 Again, there appears to have been a multiplicity of events over a period of several million years, rather than a single “Snowball Earth” event. But what could account for such a fundamental climate shift which saw glaciers forming over the equator?
It is thought that the break-up of the then super-continent 'Rodinia' may have contributed to this effect, spreading the broken up continents around the equator. This increased the global ratio of sea to land and brought about increased rainfall which, in turn, scrubbed out the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A positive feedback cycle then led to a series of glaciations around the globe.
But surely this is not a satisfactory explanation. After all, the current continental distribution is also located in a band around the globe, and the last Ice Age was very mild in comparison. It is not clear what preconditioned the Earth to go into such a calamitous freeze, the likes of which have not been experienced again for 600 million years.
The 'Snowball Earth' scenario prior to the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary is an extreme environmental condition, calling out for a bold explanation. Again, I suggest that the precondition to this series of catastrophic global glaciations was nothing less than a temporary expansion of Earth's orbit. The Earth's greater distance from the sun would readily explain the freezing over of the whole planet, and the orbital expansion of Earth would be consistent with the variables associated with the orbit of the Dark Star.
The Late, Great Bombardment
Our third catastrophic series of events in the geological record involves a massive bombardment of the solar system by comets and/or asteroids, and possibly even minor planets. The cratered appearance of the Moon is largely due to this intense bombardment of space debris that spiked between 3.8 and 3.9 billion years ago, and the Earth similarly suffered the most cataclysmic bombardment in its history.19
What puzzles astronomers is why this occurred so long after the birth of the solar system. Once again, the bombardment appears to have been a somewhat dragged out affair, implying intensely chaotic activity in the solar system over a period lasting tens of millions of years. Then it all stopped.
This puzzle has recently been resurrected to form the basis for the one-time existence of an additional planet, which initially formed between Jupiter and Mars. Somehow, this planet took on an unstable orbit and crashed into the sun, at least according to the “Planet V” theory.20 Another theory holds that the bombardment was the result of a late formation of the outer planets Neptune and Uranus.19
This late formation might have been the result of the more thinly spread material in the outer planetary zone, causing a longer accretion period. But such a bombardment from outside the planetary solar system should have catastrophically affected the Jovian moons as well. Once again, this period of sustained catastrophe in the inner solar system calls for a radical solution from 'outside the box'.
Sitchin's account of the Celestial Battle fits this 'lunar cataclysm' event very well, as the missing planet located between Mars and Jupiter (Tiamat; the primordial Earth) was bombarded by the planet Nibiru. This was said to have occurred about 4 billion years ago, some time after the solar system had formed.2
It seems reasonable to me to speculate that this 'late, great bombardment' was the work of a brown dwarf, from the sun's birthing stellar nursery, moving catastrophically through the early solar system. The subsequent interaction with the planets and the sun resulted in its capture, and a then sustained bombardment of cosmic debris. But this is where I think Sitchin's account is itself insufficient, because the very nature of the cataclysm was a temporary one, lasting at most 100 million years. Something happened after that point to draw the cataclysmic activities to an end.
Returning to the calculations by Hills regarding the effect of a captured dwarf on the planetary solar system4, the intruder brown dwarf and its retinue would be first captured into a temporary orbit of some eccentricity. This is consistent with Sitchin's model, and for tens of million years Nibiru appears to have actually returned to the inner solar system, bringing repeated catastrophic effects to the inner planets. During that time, the Earth was pummeled by thousands of asteroids, many far larger than the one that killed off the dinosaurs.
Then it all stopped. Why? If Nibiru's orbit was a stable one that continues to this day, then surely the cosmic melee would have been a constant feature of the solar system for the last 3.9 billion years?
The answer lies in the notion that the Dark Star orbit calculated by Hills is a temporary one. If the logic of astrophysicists like Matese and Whitmire is to be applied7, then this captured brown dwarf underwent massive orbital expansion, eventually locating it safely into the outer Oort cloud. In other words, as time went by, the highly eccentric orbit that had arisen as a result of its capture by the sun loosened.
The Dark Star slowly migrated out beyond the EKB. Its binding energy decreased, and the other planets in the solar system would have then been pulled closer to the sun. As part of that process, the Earth itself migrated towards the sun, bringing its anomalous body of oceanic waters with it.
The Dark Star ended up outside the planetary solar system about 3.8 billion years ago. At that distance it could do no more than shower down a few long period comets, most of which would be intercepted by the solar system's sweeper, Jupiter. The bombardment had ended after about 100 million years, and the brown dwarf had taken on a slow, distant orbit around the sun. But, as we have seen, this was not the end of the story. More extinction events were to manifest themselves in the geological record, taking on peculiar attributes, like the ones we have considered above.
Physical Mechanisms
There is a common adage in science that the more you study a phenomenon, the more confusing it becomes. I think it is self-evident that the material I have presented here is complex and by no means clear-cut. Each of the three examples I have offered provide their own mystery, but taken together they lead to even greater obfuscation.
The common thread between them is that they all involve unusual or unique activity over a period of some millions of years. Then the activity stops. A careful analysis of the bombardment events 3.9 billion years ago seems to vindicate Sitchin's claim about a cosmic interloper of extraordinary significance. Yet, the effect disappears as quickly as it occurred, and this turns out to be a significant issue
. The theoretical models for such a planetary intrusion predict eccentric orbital properties, but for only a limited number of orbits.
Where some might argue that a planet in such an unstable orbit might fall into the sun, or be ejected outright from the solar system, I would argue a middle position between these two extremes. The Dark Star orbit simply changes from one phase to another as a result of various external influences over time, and these phase changes are what brings about the cataclysms we have seen on Earth at some of the Epoch boundaries described above. This is a rather straightforward conclusion that arises from a chaotic and often confusing collection of data sets, which makes it a rather thrilling possibility because science generally prefers to seek out a simple solution to a complicated problem.
Drs. Murray and Matese both point to their non-random data sets of long-period comet orbits21,9, and claim the existence of a small brown dwarf/giant planet slowly meandering around the sun among the comets. Yet they struggle with the problem of how the sun ended up collecting such an object into its family.
It could not have accreted normally among the comets, as the material available at that distance was too scant. So it must have been captured, and such an event would most likely have occurred early in the lifetime of the solar system. This is because the stellar nursery where the sun was born was relatively dense with stars and dwarfs during that period of time. An interstellar passer-by, entering the fray later on, is much less likely to be a candidate for capture by the sun.
In either event, the capture of a Dark Star surely would have taken place reasonably closer to the sun itself, or else this brown dwarf would have continued past, oblivious to Sol's influence. Dr. Daniel Whitmire, a leading scientific thinker in the Nemesis debate, suggests that comets expand out into the Oort cloud from an initial location closer to the sun and that the giant planet would have done the same. As such, the binary brown dwarf would have started life located between one and ten thousand astronomical units from the sun - when the solar system formed - before its orbit became affected by external influences like passing stars.22 He hypothesizes that this influence led to the planet's orbit expanding into the outer Oort cloud, but it's possible that the planet could just have easily been swung into the direction of the sun, thereby entering the fray of Sitchin's Celestial Battle. After all, that's also what happens to comets.
The Dark Star would have been captured, and then pursued a series of violent bouts of destruction in the planetary zone, before then drifting out into a wider orbit. It will be evident to the reader that the patterns of change in the outer solar system have built into them far more flexibility than the planets closer to home. This is because the sun's stranglehold on these denizens of the peripheries of our system is so much less. We are therefore quite entitled to talk about migrating orbits and changing trajectories for bodies like the Dark Star, and it is this factor that creates the potential for the binary brown dwarf to shape and re-shape the planetary solar system.
In the next chapter, we will look in more detail at how the Dark Star might well be the mysterious factor behind the coming and going of Ice Ages, and how this should give us pause for thought about our current predicament regarding global warming.
References
1 H.G. Wells “The Star” 1899 With thanks to Rob Astor
2 Z. Sitchin “The Twelfth Planet” Avon 1976
3 J. Hills “Comet Showers and the Steady-state infall of comets from the Oort Cloud” Astron. J. 86, 1730 (1981)
4 J. Hills “The Passage of a “Nemesis”-like Object through the Planetary System” Astron. J. 90, 1876 (1985)
5 R. Corfield “Architects of Eternity” Headline Book Publishing 2001
6 G. Hancock, R. Bauval & J. Grigsby “The Mars Mystery” Ch 23 Penguin 1998
7 R. Muller “Nemesis - The Death Star” Weidenfield & Nicholson, 1988
8 J. Roach “Mystery Undersea Extinction Cycle Discovered” National Geographic News 9th March 2005, with thanks to Lee Covino
9 J. Matese, P. Whitman and D. Whitmire, “Cometary Evidence of a Massive Body in the Outer Oort Cloud” Icarus, 141, 354-336 (1999)
10 C. Sagan “Pale Blue Dot” Ch 11 Headline 1995
11 M. Heil “Math Program Cracks Cause of Venus Climate Change” 12th March 2001 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
12 M. Edwards “Glacial Records Depict Ice Age Climate In Synch Worldwide” National Science Foundation 24/3/04, with thanks to James Monds
13 Illinois State Museum “Ice Ages” http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/
14 W. Alvarez “T. Rex and the Crater of Doom” Penguin 1998
15 “Report on the Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects” September 2000, British National Space Centre, London citing L. O' Hanlon “Killer Crater Found” http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000419/geology_crater.html
16 I Dalziel “Earth Before Pangea” Scientific American, Aug 1994
17 P. Hoffman & D. Schrag “Snowball Earth” Scientific American, Jan 2000
18 Horizon “Snowball Earth” Shown on BBC2, 22nd Feb 2001
19 I. Semeniuk “Neptune Attacks” New Scientist 7th Apr. 2001
20 G. Birdsall “Tenth Planet Did Exist Claims NASA” UFO Magazine Jun. 2002
21 J. Murray. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 309, 31-34 (1999)
22 Earthfile “A Mysterious “Perturber” at the Edges of Our Solar System?” Linda Moulton Howe interviewing Dr. Daniel Whitmire, http://www.earthfiles.com/earth086.htm1999
18. Ice Age
It is sometimes tempting to try and use a new idea to answer just about everything, and take things a little too far. We have to tread carefully when attributing significant events to the Dark Star. Obviously, we cannot for certainty say that it exists, or accurately describe anything about its orbit. However, the new scientific evidence in the outer solar system is consistent with its presence, but the fact that such a body remains undetected prevents scientists from sticking their necks out on this issue.
In the last chapter, we looked over periods in the Earth's history when mass extinctions took place. But instead of looking at events that were seemingly sudden, like the asteroid impact that probably drove the dinosaurs to extinction, we considered other, larger events that occurred over extended time periods. The causes of these events remain mysterious, but if a Dark Star were to be discovered, it could readily account for them through orbital fluctuations and related mechanisms.
I believe that the same holds true for another problem faced by Science, and that is the coming and going of Ice Epochs. Simply put, the Earth's distance from the sun is not cast in stone, but is a variable.
Expansion and Contraction
This will strike many as being quite unthinkable. However, I have corresponded with many astronomers and astrophysicists over the last few years and they all confirm this fact, which I first became aware of through reading Jack Hills' 1985 paper.1 For instance, here is an extract of my correspondence with Dr. Daniel Whitmire, which not only confirms the general idea that the companion's orbital changes would have knock-on effects with other planets, but also indicates that such changes are significant enough to limit the initial distance of formation of the brown dwarf companion:
Andy Lloyd:
If the brown dwarf is pumped out over billions of years, does its binding energy to the sun alter over time?
Daniel Whitmire:
Yes.
Andy Lloyd:
If so, does this have a knock on effect on the orbital radii of the known planets?
Daniel Whitmire:
This is a constraint on how close it could have formed. Must be at least hundreds of AU.
Andy Lloyd:
Given that a great circular orbit at 20,000 AU is inherently unstable...,
Daniel Whitmire:
Not "inherently". It's statistics. Maybe there's a ~50% chance it would have survived passing stars until today if it started at 20,000 AU.
Andy Lloyd:
...accordin
g to the 1999 Matese/Whitmire paper, and Hills (1985), the as the brown dwarf attains this distance from the sun in its slow spiral outwards, would it not be in danger of being perturbed back into the solar system by, say, a passing star?
Daniel Whitmire:
Odds of that are small, but it would be expected to be perturbed into the planetary region (or within ~100 AU) a few times in 4.5 Gyr [the lifetime of the solar system] due to the galactic tidal force. No problem however, at least according to a study by Hills. I believe he concluded even a 0.1 solar mass passing star need not significantly disrupt planetary orbits.
Andy Lloyd:
Can we not envisage, then, a cyclical orbital pattern whereby the brown dwarf is pumped up until it reaches an unstable orbital configuration, and then perturbed like a comet back into the planetary zone to start all over again?
Daniel Whitmire:
Once its orbit is greater than about 30,000 AU the tide will accomplish this on times scales less than the age of the solar system, but still measured in hundreds of millions of years. Stellar perturbations alone result in only a tiny fraction of comets coming into the planetary region.2
So, we can see how a substantial planet beyond the EKB is a rogue element in more ways than one. Not only could it push comets into the inner solar system, but its orbit could readily be subject to change over time. Its sheer size then, has a knock-on effect for our planet's orbit. The same holds true for the other planets in the solar system as well. The whole system is subject to expansion or contraction at the whim of this rogue body.
This is a difficult concept to grapple with, because we are all so used to thinking of planets behaving like billiard balls. The Planet X catastrophists generally describe the potential for catastrophe in blunt terms, having to do with planetary collisions and bombardments by comets. But for me, the real problem is that our planet's orbit is inherently linked to the fate of a massive hidden planet, which is subject to forces outside the solar system. There need not be any bombardment or incoming planet to directly affect our planet's orbit and global climate. Yet, this physical situation is not even considered for the most part, and for obvious reasons.