Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Dec 1984
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1984mnras.211..953c&link_type=abstract
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (ISSN 0035-8711), vol. 211, Dec. 15, 1984, p. 953-968.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
78
Asteroids, Comets, Earth Environment, Geochronology, Molecular Clouds, Planetary Evolution, Cometary Atmospheres, Cosmic Dust, Geochemistry, Glaciers, Meteorite Craters, Poynting-Robertson Effect, Solar System
Scientific paper
The theory of evolution involving episodic terrestrial catastrophism predicts that the Oort cloud is disturbed by close encounters with massive nebulae. Each disturbance generates bombardment pulses of a few million years duration, the pulse frequencies being determined by the Sun's passage through the spiral arms and central plane of the Galaxy where nebulae concentrate. The structure within a pulse is shown here to be dominated by a series of "spikes" of ≡0.01 - 0.1 Myr duration separated by ≡0.1 - 1.0 Myr, each caused by the arrival in circumterrestrial space of the largest comets followed by their disintegration into short-lived Apollo asteroids. Evidence is presented that a bombardment pulse was induced 3 - 5 Myr ago and that a "spike" in the form of debris from a Chiron-like progenitor of Encke's comet has dominated the terrestrial environment for the last 0.02 Myr. Among the predicted consequences are 14C modulations, climatic variations including the last major glaciation and observable zodiacal light phenomena.
Clube V. M. S.
Napier Mcd. W.
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