Research by New York University Biology Professor Michael Rampino ( http://www.biology.as.nyu.edu/object/MichaelRampino.html ) concludes that Earth's infrequent but predictable path around and through our Galaxy's disc may have a direct and significant effect on geological and biological phenomena occurring on Earth. In a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, he concludes that movement through dark matter may perturb the orbits of comets and lead to additional heating in the Earth's core, both of which could be connected with mass extinction events.
The Galactic disc is the region of the Milky Way Galaxy where our solar system resides. It is crowded with stars and clouds of gas and dust, and also a concentration of elusive dark matter--small subatomic particles that can be detected only by their gravitational effects.
Previous studies have shown that Earth rotates around the disc-shaped Galaxy once every 250 million years. But the Earth's path around the Galaxy is wavy, with the Sun and planets weaving through the crowded disc approximately every 30 million years. Analyzing the pattern of the Earth's passes through the Galactic disc, Rampino notes that these disc passages seem to correlate with times of comet impacts and mass extinctions of life. The famous comet strike 66 million ago that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs is just one example.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-02/nyu-ddm021815.php
[Also Covered By]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/dinosaurs/11422695/Dark-matter-may-have-killed-the-dinosaurs-claims-scientist.html
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @06:35AM
Darkie Matters Cause Mass Unrest and Societal Upheaval
Remember Trayvon!!!!
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday February 20 2015, @06:40AM
Shit. Shouldn't have asked this, now this is a conundrum.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday February 20 2015, @07:34AM
At least it's not a goddamned Paradox, Louise! ("Millenium" 1989? Wow, Old Movie!)
Now if only we knew what dark matter was, and where it was, and how to tell where it was, perhaps we could steer the solar system around the rough patches? I think we are going to need more than Bruce Willis for this one.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday February 20 2015, @07:38AM
You are not talking about ... No, you can't think of... Do you really want to ask Chuck Norris [chucknorrisfacts.com]? Isn't there a risk of creating another big bang?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Friday February 20 2015, @08:27AM
Bah! [schneierfacts.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday February 20 2015, @09:04AM
Good one :-)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 5, Funny) by c0lo on Friday February 20 2015, @07:44AM
Cf. the Mighty Buzz, one cannot say for sure until confirmed by a double blind experiment, peer-reviewed and uncontested by skeptics. The matter at hand declared closed.
(honest to God, I'm just kidding, no malice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @07:54AM
Dark matter does not exist. Scientists know this, but they intentionally perpetuate the falsehood of its existence to prolong their funding so they can pay for wild parties with wine, cheese, and heroin.
Wake up, people! Science is a scam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @07:59AM
The heroin and cheese *is* dark matter. This is all part of their ploy...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @08:00AM
The wine is red matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @09:23AM
and the morning after?
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday February 20 2015, @07:08PM
Doesn't matter...
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Saturday February 21 2015, @02:39AM
I don't believe in existence!
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 20 2015, @08:38AM
This trend for periodic extinctions have been noticed before, and memory fails me on what it was blamed last time around. Planet X or some such thing.
But it certainly seems odd that just a couple weeks ago, some scientists were suggesting dark matter might not exist at all, while others are piling on the list of things to blame on dark matter.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ryuugami on Friday February 20 2015, @09:17AM
But it certainly seems odd that just a couple weeks ago, some scientists were suggesting dark matter might not exist at all, while others are piling on the list of things to blame on dark matter.
Why would that seem odd? "Scientists" are not a hive mind, and the evidence for dark matter is not conclusive until we can actually observe it directly. That's prime material for all kinds of speculation and wild ideas. Hell, some of them might even be true. Almost every major scientific discovery was at first dismissed as impossible by most of the scientists, but with enough evidence, they were convinced.
Of course, this doesn't mean that we blindly accept any wild theory just because it's wild. OTOH, dismissing it because it "sounds stupid" or because "some other people assumed the opposite" is equally short-sighted.
Wait, let me try a car analogy.
But it certainly seems odd that just a couple weeks ago, some cars were turning left at this intersection, while others are turning right.
If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @09:28AM
> Almost every major scientific discovery was at first dismissed as impossible by most of the scientists, but with enough evidence, they were convinced.
No! This is just something put about by popular science.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @03:36PM
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday February 20 2015, @09:19PM
But it certainly seems odd that just a couple weeks ago, some cars were turning left at this intersection, while others are turning right.
But if you made such an assertion about cars you could not see, measure, weigh, hear, passing through an intersection which was largely imaginary, and, if it existed at all was quadrillions of miles away, and if you made the assertion just so you could balance your equations about cat litter accumulation in the dryer filter, you would need to come up with something more convincing than a supposed extinction event that might have happened 300 million years ago.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 20 2015, @03:34PM
Planet X was the hypothetical planet beyond Neptune screwing with the orbits of the outer planets, until Pluto was discovered. It is also the only known source of Illudium Phosdex, the shaving cream atom.
You're thinking of Nemesis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_%28hypothetical_star%29 [wikipedia.org]
I was under the impression that the periodic extinctions were explained by our solar system passing through the densely-populated plane of the galaxy as it "wobbles" up and down.
I'm sure the people who came up with this dark matter theory were well aware of both of the above hypotheses, and have taken them into account.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @09:01AM
You don't even know, can't even define, what "dark matter" is, but you fault it for ...
Lousy headline/TFS?
Editors, if you are clueless with the topic, pass it onto one who is.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Friday February 20 2015, @09:15AM
If you are knowledgeable about such topics, volunteer as an author. Soylentnews can probably still need some.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Friday February 20 2015, @10:23AM
Well said! I list my interest/experience as:
I don't think I put 'Dark Matter' in there - nor has any other editor and, yes, I have checked!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday February 20 2015, @04:18PM
Yeah I would second this. SN has a stable core now, but it still needs building. The more knowledgeable volunteers who chip in, the more knowledgeable volunteers will join them. The awesome thing about contributing energy here is that you are judged solely on your contributions, unclouded and unfiltered (mostly) by your religion, race, politics, social context, etc.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday February 20 2015, @12:10PM
...does not exist, nor does dark energy (or the Dark Knight).
Science does indeed have something wrong which a few are trying to change (google Julian Barbour). Won't go into it again, every time this topic is brought up.
DOES NOT EXIST!
Sheeesh!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @12:48PM
You say that but you have no better model except some woolly headed "oh let's modify gravity". There is a model that meets the experimental data. There is no other model that meets the experimental data. Thus scientists assume that model is correct.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 20 2015, @05:06PM
There is no other model that meets the experimental data. Thus scientists assume that model is correct.Thus scientists work with that model until a better one comes along.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 20 2015, @12:54PM
If only …
(Score: 3, Informative) by Open4D on Friday February 20 2015, @03:32PM
I didn't find anything about Barbour trying to change Science itself. He just has some non-mainstream theories in physics, which presumably he hopes will become accepted via the normal scientific processes.
I get the impression he isn't taken seriously by most other physicists. That doesn't mean he's wrong, of course.
On the question of dark matter's existence, I'm tempted to agree with you about not going into it every time the topic is brought up. I'll just link to one previous discussion, which was triggered by comment #117179 at Dark Matter could be Detected in GPS Time Glitches [soylentnews.org].
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Friday February 20 2015, @05:46PM
Since Dark Matter has never been observed, well, you may as well be blaming ghosts, aliens, Planet X, rogue stars, black holes, neutron stars, Klingons, etc. for "mass extinctions" and "geologic upheavals". I was going to also include supernova, but that at least has been evidence for that.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC39984/ [nih.gov]
Anyway, we know exactly what is causing current mass extinction - man. Mostly though habitat destruction, like agriculture. Draining of wet lands to create marginal agricultural land and even cause problems (flooding) is a major issue. Illegal pet trade and exotic food trade. "Traditional medicine" trade - kind of disgusting if you ask me to kill now rare animals because of some "traditional" beliefs.
Humans will also cause "geologic upheavals" via global warming - what do you think will happen when 5km thick ice melts in Antarctica? Antarctica will rebound, and somewhere else it will get "sucked in".
No need to make up imaginary cause, like Dark Matter/Energy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21 2015, @06:14AM
I can't tell if ya'll are trolling or not, but dark matter is pretty conclusively shown to not be baryonic matter by the bullet cluster. Check that shit out.