Sun's Dark Companion 'Nemesis' Not So Likely

TravisTR passes along a story about the death of Nemesis. "The data that once suggested the Sun is orbited by a distant dark companion now raises even more questions... The periodicity [of mass extinctions] is a matter of some controversy among paleobiologists but there is a growing consensus that something of enormous destructive power happens every 26 or 27 million years. The question is what? ... another idea first put forward in the 1980s is that the Sun has a distant dark companion called Nemesis that sweeps through the Oort cloud every 27 million years or so, sending a deadly shower of comets our way. ... [Researchers] have brought together a massive set of extinction data from the last 500 million years, a period that is twice as long as anybody else has studied. And their analysis shows an excess of extinctions every 27 million years, with a confidence level of 99%. That's a clear, sharp signal over a huge length of time. At first glance, you'd think it clearly backs the idea that a distant dark object orbits the Sun every 27 million years. But ironically, the accuracy and regularity of these events is actually evidence against Nemesis' existence."

Comments

How long since last time

[EmperorOfCanada]

How long has it been since the last apocalypse? Basically is the odometer rolling around its 27 millionth year? If so can we see something coming? Dust cloud?

Re:How long since last time

[steelfood]

Damn, and here I was, holding out that it would be December 21st, 2012.

Re:How long since last time

[ibsteve2u]

And, in a stunning display of randomness (or a 1% solution, depending upon your perspective), nemesis sent meteors crashing down into the keyboards of everybody who modded me down...

Re:How long since last time

[John Hasler]

> Better still, read the comment to the article by Torbjorn...

I quit reading when I got to "stealth creationist". That's the sort of ad hominem crap that's typical of Slashdot comments.

Re:How long since last time

[c6gunner]

I quit reading when I got to "stealth creationist". That's the sort of ad hominem crap that's typical of Slashdot comments.

I quit reading after I got to the word "the". That's the sort of crap that's typical of Slashdot comments.

Re:How long since last time

[biryokumaru]

Nope. It's always been fine. Read the fine article. Read the fine manual. Your wife and I were fine last night. Always just been fine.

Re:How long since last time

[sortius_nod]

Wooosh

Re:How long since last time

[TubeSteak]

I quit reading after I got to the word "the". That's the sort of crap that's typical of Slashdot comments.

I quit reading after I got to Slashdot

Re:How long since last time

[Yvan256]

Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not in any way be exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance.

The Sun's dark companion is in fact the legendary Magrathea.

The deadly shower of comets that will pass near Earth in a few million years will result merely in the breakage of three coffee cups and a micecage, the bruising of somebody's upper arm, and the untimely creation and sudden demise of a bowl of petunias and an innocent sperm whale.

In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning whose upper arm sustained the bruise. This fact may safely be made the subject of suspense since it is of no significance whatsoever.

Re:11 million years

[Surt]

Crap, we're screwed. We are not good at planning ahead. If only we'd had more time.

Thank God!

[mangu]

11 million years

At first I read "1.1 million years" and was really worried

Mass Effect is right

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the Reapers.

It's obvious, isn't it?

[mt1955]

Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror. -- Ming the Merciless

I think I understand

[by (1706743)]

Sun's Dark Companion 'Nemesis' Not So Likely

"Nemesis" is the codename for the next MySQL release, to which Oracle is giving the ax. After the 5.1 debacle, I'm not surprised the database is being touted as a "Sun's Dark Companion."

Odd, I just got this weird feeling that I'm being offtopic.

By the way....

[Trailer Trash]

It's been 26,999,998 years since the last mass extinction.

Re:period of passing through the galaxy ecliptics?

[gyrogeerloose]

I, for one, will be building an underground city, you are welcome to join me Slashdot.

Hey, cool, thanks! I can bring guns, ammo, survival rations, a four-wheel-drive vehicle, electrical power generators and radio equipment and a Caterpillar D-9. But you're not allergic to cats, are you? Because I can't go anywhere without Fluffy...

I thought Suns dark companion was

[mevets]

Oracle, who are probably going to cause an extinction much earlier than this....

Re:period of passing through the galaxy ecliptics?

[Fluffeh]

Because I can't go anywhere without Fluffy...

Okay, do I know you?...

*sips coffee*

I thought ...

[PPH]

... Sun's dark companion was called Oracle. When did they change their name to Nemesis?

Ask the global warming crowd

[jvillain]

Why not ask the AGW crowd. They know every thing about what affects the earth. They have graphs to prove these extinctions events didn't happen and they have all come to a consensus on it. What more do you need.

My Wife's Dark Companion

[OIIIIO]

At my house, Nemesis shows up about every 28 days.