Did Gama Rays cause last Ice Age?

Hey not so far out to me, in fact I have mentioned a few times here the idea of gama rays originating from the central milky way galaxy and its effects on earth.

Now science is talking about this idea that is a topic of discussion amongst those interested in the paranormal and psychic community.

Here is an excerpt:

"It appears that the (gamma ray) bursts are a serious danger, although not something you would expect to hit us very often, maybe every few hundred million years," said Adrian Melott, a professor of physics and astronomy.

www.ljworld.com...

So what do you think a reasonable explanation for an event that nobody can explain yet? The dying off of much of earth's life and the radical change in temperature and conditions on the planet's surface.

Is it possible that annother ice age is in the earth's near future as some predict? How could we find out, if the time frame is as long as suggested here?

Good controversial find, Neo!

Still, I find this one hard to believe. Yes, we get gamma ray bursts but the intensity of the radiation wouldn't be that heavy. The concentration decrease should follow the inverse-square law.

I don't see that there's any way that something that far could produce enough radiation/gamma rays to affect things. Furthermore, I don't think there's enough exploded stars in that distance range to account for the other die-offs.

The Space Daily article contains more info:
www.spacedaily.com...

Don't see any papers on this on the SCIRUS science search engine.... so they haven't published any results; they've just announced it (VERY dangerous move.)

...like the other scientists, I'm still skeptical, but it's a darn good find.

Byrd,

thanks for some insightful comments.

not sure if you have heard about this but there are theories or suggestions out there that there are in fact black holes in the centre of galaxies?

If so then it must be related to black holes as this article suggests.

I assume that gamma rays leave a signature that can be read in fossils etc or other evidence thought to abound during the last ice age.

What is most interesting is the effect on other planets that may or not harbour life.