The Shiva hypothesis, also known as coherent catastrophism, is the idea that global natural catastrophes on Earth, such as extinction events, happen at regular intervals because of the periodic motion of the Sun in relation to the Milky Way galaxy.
Initial proposal in 1979
William Napier and Victor Clube in their 1979 Nature article, ”A Theory of Terrestrial Catastrophism”,[1] proposed the idea that gravitational disturbances caused by the Solar System crossing the plane of the Milky Way galaxy are enough to disturb comets in the Oort cloud surrounding the Solar System. This sends comets in towards the inner Solar System, which raises the chance of an impact. According to the hypothesis, this results in the Earth experiencing large impact events about every 30 million years (such as the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event).
The idea of extinction periodicity has been criticised due to the fact that the hypothesis assumes that most or all extinction events have the same cause, when evidence suggests that extinctions are likely the result of a variety of causes that are unlikely to be cyclically induced.[8]
Once you realize that only one mass extinction has happened due to a meteorite it kind of becomes obvious it’s a bogus theory.
We don’t know the cause of most extinction events. There are competing theories for many.
Interesting indeed, but more salient to my sci-fi soaked brain is is connection to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(hypothetical_star)
Great share, thanks!
Stupid science saying they’ve disproven it. Trying to steal all our fun with facts and studies
These are the same people that took Pluto from us.
Can’t wait to see what the Bobiverse does with it. Highly recommend that series.
There’s gotta be another way of understanding the world that isn’t impeded by facts. I thought we lived in a democracy??
