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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: 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].