Nemesis by me

Is our Earth’s sun one half of a pair of stars?  Is there a second star that comes around every 26 million years?  Some physicists and geologists think so.

                As early as 1984, the existence of such a star was proposed to explain the apparent 26 million year cycle of mass extinctions on earth, such as that of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.  It has been named Nemesis, the death star.

                The theory is that when the star passes closest to the Earth, it disrupts a cloud of comets, sending them hurtling through space toward our planet.  It has not been sighted yet because it is proposed to be a red or brown dwarf star, very dim, not emitting much light.  An infrared analysis of space has just begun which should find it if it exists.   Approximately two thirds of stars exist in pairs or binary star systems, and most of those occur in uneven sizes and strengths.

                An international consensus was reached in 2010, confirming that a comet impact at Chicxulub on the Yucatan Peninsula was responsible for that dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, paving the way for mammals to thrive and humans to evolve.

                There are scientists who doubt the periodicity of the extinctions, and those who doubt nemesis’ existence, but it was not so many years ago that the same number of scientists doubted than an impact extincted the dinosaurs, a fact now proven beyond all doubt.