A new theory argues that Earth and Mars originally formed a single protoplanet—Terramars—outside the orbit of Jupiter. Then, over 4 billion years ago, Terramars was pulled by Jupiter’s powerful gravitational field past the gas giant. As Terramars neared Jupiter, tidal forces heated it to the melting point, and Jupiter pulled Mars away from Earth. Both planets, now turned into red-hot comets, sped off into the inner solar system.
There’s no shortage of candidates for the cause of the mass extinctions of prehistory. But experts have found flaws in every one.
Asteroid impact at Chicxulub clearly played a role in the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 65,000,000 years ago, though scientists differ on whether it actually caused the extinction because serious disruptions had begun hundreds of thousands of years before with the basalt flows of the Deccan Traps.(1) Some researchers argue that giant basalt lava flows that poisoned the atmosphere and oceans played a central role in all five major extinctions. But no consensus exists on what forces triggered them.
Lurking in the background, however, is a quite plausible cause, one that would have possessed the power to set off the volcanic activity, air pollution, sea level shifts, loss of oxygen in oceans, climate changes, and other phenomena associated with the extinctions. Yet this cause does not seem to have been proposed, and proving or disproving it will require a good deal of investigation. Curiously, nonetheless, a significant body of relevant research has already been carried out in a subject parallel to the extinctions. But that research languishes in a scientific limbo.
The Martian Theory Continue reading »
A new theory of the origin of the terrestrial planets appears to solve longstanding scientific riddles.
Researchers have encountered repeated frustration in their efforts to agree on how Earth came to have a significant amount of water. Meanwhile, the giant impact theory of the origin of the Earth-Moon system requires an elaborate scenario that seems impossible to verify and is undermined by new evidence. And none of the scores of hypotheses of the cause of the mass extinctions of prehistory has gained acceptance. Yet the new theory of the origin of the terrestrial planets can solve all three problems, and minor ones as well. Continue reading »
Sea-based approaches to the disposal of nuclear waste have significant advantages. They make it hard for terrorists, rebels, or criminals to steal for use in radiological weapons or in nuclear bombs. The enormous volume of water in the world’s oceans also has a vastly greater dilutive capacity than any single land site in the event of unintended leaks (though by the same token the effects of a leak could travel farther). And seawater itself contains a variety of radionuclides, so treating it as a domain in which there is no natural radioactivity runs counter to fact. Even proponents of land-based geological storage sites of radioactive waste must recognize that, without a great deal of additional investment and endless political arguments, these sites will not have the capacity to store all the waste that will be generated in future decades. So studying sea-based solutions makes eminent sense.
Four sea-based approaches recommend themselves. Continue reading »
Immanuel Velikovsky argued famously, based on his interpretation of ancient sources, that Venus had emerged from Jupiter as a comet, interacted with the Earth and Mars in the second and first millennia B.C., and then finally settled into a nearly circular orbit of the Sun.
Here are three new lines of reasoning that tend to support this theory:
1. Instead of the various unpersuasive suggestions that Velikovsky and others have made for how a cometary Venus could have emerged from Jupiter, we should consider the possible consequences of the immense gravitational field of Jupiter, which pulls into the giant planet a stream of asteroids and comets such as Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994. Continue reading »
The famous Snake Goddess of ancient Crete has long attracted students of history and art. Elegant, risquée, enigmatic, she embodies the mystery and allure of Minoan civilization. Continue reading »
The Open Dream Ensemble of Winston-Salem, NC uses performance art to teach children science. Watch as the ODE team tries to stop the evil Dr. Disrupto’s efforts to keep Isaac Newton from making his greatest discoveries.
Babylonian skywatchers reported many details of celestial phenomena, but the astrologers of Babylon are said not to have relied on actual observations.
According to a leading expert, “The existence of Babylonian omens for eclipses beginning and clearing in all four directions, or areas of the moon, despite the fact that a lunar eclipse will never begin on the western edge of the moon, indicates a lack of concern with observational veracity in favor of schematic order.”[1]
This researcher uses the term “counterfactual” to refer to indications in the omen literature of the shadow of the Earth beginning on the western edge of the Moon. The conclusion is that there was no connection between astrology and astronomical observation; the omens were simply concocted according to schemata that suited the needs of the astrologers on the occasion.
However, there is a competing explanation that makes more sense of what the Babylonian astrologers were up to. Continue reading »
