CHAPTER 11 |
What can we Determine about the Origins of the Original Intruder to our Solar System
All available data that could be found for the location of planetary nebulae and recent supernovas was plotted on a polar graph with the sun as centre (figure 2). These data were selected as indications of recent stellar disruptions. For practical purposes, all of the data falls within a sector with its apex at the Lagoon and Triffid Nebulae (on the border of Sagittarius and Scorpio), and with a radius of about 10 000 light years. The vertex of the sector includes an angle of about 120 degrees, and a line between the Lagoon Nebula and the Sun almost bisects the included angle of 120 degrees, suggesting that our solar system was right in the apparently directional firing line of this supernova.
This data would appear to strongly support the idea of a massive supernova in probably the Lagoon nebula, with the resulting shock wave initiating more supernova in nearby stellar systems. The Lagoon nebula is on the border of Sagittarius and Scorpio and old Greek traditions talk about how goddesses used the serpent Scorpio to bite and kill Orion, the Hunter. This leads us onto the constellation of Orion.
Much evidence has been published (eg Gooden 45 ) to the effect that three young stars known as Mu Columbae, 53 Arietis, and A.E. Aurigae were relatively recently blown apart from a centre in the star-forming region of the Orion nebula. This occurred approximately 2.7 million years ago. These stars are still moving apart at velocities of about 140 kilometres per second for each star. If we take this as an indication for how fast large stellar sized debris can be expelled from a supernova, and review aspects of the Orion explosion, we can carry out some interesting calculations, about the supernova on the cusp of Sagittarius / Scorpio, and how this may have affected our solar system.
Examination of Orion Event
With the Orion explosion dated at 2.7 million years BP and the source of the explosion only about 1400 light years away, it is almost axiomatic that such a huge nearby explosion as this would have had an impact on Earth, and when we look for clues, they are not hard to find.
Relativistic electrons (ie tiny negatively charged particles travelling at almost 300 000 kilometres per second) would have reached Earth almost as soon as the light from the explosion, and there was a short-term magnetic reversal about 2.7 million years BP. Hydrogen ions and other heavier element ions would probably have taken about a quarter to half a million years to reach Earth, travelling at velocities of between 750 to 1500 kilometres per second (Such velocities are quoted by Charles and Culhane 46 as being typical for a freely expanding shock wave for a supernova.) Thus they should have arrived about 2.2 - 2.45 million years BP, co-incident with another magnetic reversal.
Dust and vapours would also come along, but a bit later, though well ahead of any more massive debris. If they travel at about 50 % faster than the velocity of the ejected stars (ie about 210 kilometres per second), they would take about two million years to reach us, and would have arrived about 700 000 years BP, at a time when debris did arrive from space, and the last long-term magnetic reversal occurred. Other dated debris arrived at 1 000 000 years BP (coincident with another short-term magnetic reversal), presumably travelling at about 250 kilometres per second if it came from Orion, but it need not have had this origin.
At about the time of the Orion explosion (ie about 2.7-3.0 million years BP), typical cores taken from the ocean floor off Newfoundland by the drill ship "Glomar Challenger" show a sharp change from grey to brownish, and soon afterwards the fossil record shows the onset of the last and present ice age (we are now only in an interglacial period). The conclusion is clear that by about two million years ago the Earth was well in the grip of the present ice age.
About 2.4 million years ago, when we should have been getting the first ions from the Orion explosion, there was a magnetic reversal, and we moved from the Gauss normal epoch to the Matuyama reversed epoch a new epoch which continued, with occasional inter-regums, till the present Brunhes Normal epoch; an epoch which began about seven hundred thousand years ago.
Coincident with the 700 000 BP reversal, was a fall of molten silicates across an area from the Philippines south to Tasmania and across the Indian ocean almost to Africa. While it is currently thought that the impact of cosmic debris on Earth causes magnetic pole reversals, the mechanism is not clear, and it may well be that just an influx of charged particles into the atmosphere may be enough.
Figure 8 shows an indication of volcanic activity on Earth, as measured by ash layers recorded in different levels of deep sea core. The sharp transition into completely atypical volcanic activity begins about 2.4 million years BP, coincident with the arrival on Earth of the expanding shock wave of the Orion explosion. It can be seen that there were two lesser events from about 14 million to 12 million years BP, and from about 6 million to 3 million years BP.
Since the most recent epoch corresponds to ions arriving from a nearby supernova, it is probable that so do the earlier epochs. Let us interpret this information in light of the supernova on the cusp of Sagittarius / Scorpio.
Impact on Earth of presumed Supernova in Lagoon Nebula.
The lagoon nebula is about 5000 light years from Earth so the intensity of effects from it should be much less than those of the Orion supernova which was only about 1400 Light years away. Furthermore, in this case the debris is climbing out of a "gravity well" rather than falling into one as in the case of debris coming to Earth from the Orion Nebula explosion. Somewhat lower transit rates for debris would seem to be applicable to compensate for this effect (say climbing rate is about two thirds of falling rate). The following estimated transit times apply for debris from the Lagoon Nebula supernova, assuming 500-1000 kilometres per second for ions, 125-170 kilometres per second for dust and vapours, and 100- 120 kilometres per second for stellar / large planetary sized bodies.
If we place the actual supernova at 15 million years BP, then electrons travelling at speeds approaching the velocity of light would have arrived about 15 million years ago. A magnetic poles reversal occurred on earth dated at approximately 14.7 million years ago, closely co-incidental with the arrival of relativistic electrons from this explosion ((New Scientist, 7th Sept, 1978). The expanding shock wave from the supernova would have reached Earth about 13.5 - 12 million years BP, the vapour and dust would have appeared about 6 - 3.0 million years BP, and the large debris if any, would have arrived somewhere between 2.5 million years BP and the present day. On its probable orbit, travelling at about 101 kilometres per second, then planetary sized debris would have arrived about 200 000 BP.
On this basis of a huge supernova in the Lagoon Nebula dated at about 15 million BP, we can account for a magnetic poles reversal dated at about 14.7 -15.0 million years ago. We can also explain the volcanic activity on Earth about 14 - 12 million years BP, the volcanic activity of 6 million to 3 million years BP, and the arrival of large planet sized debris from that general direction about 200 000 years BP. The Orion explosion, presumably triggered by the Lagoon nebula supernova, appears to explain the full-blown onset of the ice ages by 2 000 000 years BP, the magnetic reversals of about 2.7 million years BP and 2.4 million years BP, plus the combined tektite falls and magnetic reversals of 1 000 000 years BP and 700 000 years BP.
In Summary
It appears evident that a major supernova occurred at what is now called the Lagoon Nebula (on the cusp of Scorpio / Sagittarius) about 15 million years ago. This supernova affected stellar systems up to 12 000 light years away, and our solar system was well within this zone and right in the firing line. Given the seemingly focussed direction of the resultant of the supernova, we can speculate that this supernova may very well have been caused by a planetary induced gravitational disturbance caused by a massive body on the cusp of Gemini / Taurus (as seen from the solar system which subsequently became the Lagoon nebula). If this be the case, then it is highly likely that the planetary body which triggered the destruction of that star is the same planetary body which entered our solar system from that general direction about 200 000 BP.
In any case, a giant planetary sized body accompanied by supernova debris reached our solar system about 200 000 years ago as a direct consequence of this major supernova, and was later to be known as Nibiru to the Sumerians, To reach us this debris followed a slightly curved trajectory, and approached our solar system from about 12 degrees in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is unlikely that the debris had any direct stellar encounters on the way here.
It is estimated that this planet sized debris entered our solar system with an intrinsic velocity of about 101 kilometres per second, and that it would probably have passed straight through our solar system if it had not become tangled up with the larger planets here.
The great momentum of this intruder to the solar system had to be reduced substantially if it were to be held by this electromagnetic / gravity well of our sun, It seems to have partly accomplished this end by sharing its momentum with a pre-existing planet Tiamat which was cast out on a very elongated orbit. It also partly shed its momentum by generating large amounts of heat in various members of the solar system.. It may also have increased both its own rate of spin and the rate of spin of the other large planets in our system, in order to convert its orbital momentum into angular momentum. It is a hitherto unexplained fact that the planet Jupiter holds most of the angular momentum of the known solar system, and all the gas giants seem to have unexplained quantities of heat.