The Way to Dusty Death

Brian Doherty | March 7, 2005

It's our planet's greatest murder mystery: what causes the occasional mass species extinctions that plague us? Space.com offers some new speculations, so far based on model possibilities, not hard evidence: dense clouds of cosmic debris that our solar system might have passed through in its twirlings through endless space, taking up to a half million years for us to escape. Such clouds could either freeze out life or, under certain conditions, destroy the ozone layer, saith Alex Pavlov, author of a couple of papers on the topic appearing in Geophysical Research Reports.

Comments

|3.7.05 @ 8:46PM|#

space.com also had an article about sun storms causing ozone layer loss a few weeks back.

That one went strangely unreported among academic true believers. And by most of the mainstream media.

|3.7.05 @ 9:04PM|#

We're counting the media's inattention to astrophysics as part of the conspiracy now?

|3.7.05 @ 9:18PM|#

Personally, I believe the offending species were devoured by a giant star goat passing through the galaxy.

|3.7.05 @ 9:48PM|#

Hmmm...Very, VERY old news. I think the first time I heard this type of theory was around '78. Yawn. Everything old is new again.

|3.7.05 @ 11:21PM|#

cdunlea:

just have a nice jinnan tonnix and forget about the star goat

|3.8.05 @ 5:33AM|#

Beats the piss out of me.

Brian|3.8.05 @ 11:52AM|#

Yet another good reason why we should settle space.

|3.8.05 @ 3:18PM|#

biologist,

What are you trying to imply about gin? You're part of the conspiracy, aren't you!?