reply to post by Pappie54
but if you are going to "debunk" this, focus on the science, and read all the supporting papers.
The papers themselves may not need debunked, because they probably do not support the site author's proposition. Have you tried emailing any of the
scientists involved in any of those papers and asked them or notified them of this site? Perhaps I should do that and then post the results.
However, the lynchpin of the article rests upon Earth passing through the "Galactic Equator". The rest of the article builds upon this
supposition.
Prior to December 2012 we have been drifting on the top of the pizza, never really able to see the bottom. The plate and pizza are not parallel. They
are moving at different angles. We've been drifting down, down, down... and on December 21st, 2012, we will be exactly level with the crust --
forming an "x" at the Galactic Equator where galactic gravity is the strongest.
Unfortunately, we've already long since passed it - and we're not going to be anywhere close to it come 2012.
www.ingentaconnect.com...
The Sun is found to lie 34.56±0.56 pc above the plane.
That's... roughly, 110 light years away. Further, gravity isn't like a "switch" or a laser beam that you can turn on or off, or pass in or out of.
Were such the case that we were traveling through the Galactic equator - and that the gravity had some effect on us - we'd have been seeing it's
effects gradually increasing for a very, very long time. Actually, decreasing now - since we've already passed it and are on the upswing.
but if it is true that a gamma burst from the center of our the Milky Way sets it off, and there is now data that supports that this was what
destroyed the fauna last cycle, then this is an event that unless your a chosen one for some underground complex that exist, your fried.
The fossil record does not suggest any sort of claim. While extinctions do some in semi-regular cycles, their severity varies. Your description would
imply an extinction level event greater than even the Permian-Triassic "Great Dying" - an event in which over 80% of the Earth's life died off. The
mean average loss of speciation is actually closer to around 15% or less. Mass extinctions are extremely rare, and there's no shortage of geological
or biological events which are capable of causing extinction events. Humans alone are partially responsible for two of them - the Pleistocene and
Holocene events.
Extinction, also, is not generally caused by a single factor. They're the result of long term stresses punctuated by sudden shock. The
Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction wasn't caused by the Chicxulub bolide - but was triggered by it.
Also, the PDF is from the Starburst Foundation. They have about as much credibility in astronomy and physics circles as the Discovery Institute does
in Biology.